Bailard Inc. Buys Shares of 43,200 MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA)

Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 43,200 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $443,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MFA. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in MFA Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $633,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of MFA Financial by 96.7% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 100,487 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,024,000 after purchasing an additional 49,407 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 77.4% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 188,015 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,916,000 after purchasing an additional 82,039 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of MFA Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $240,000. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. raised its position in shares of MFA Financial by 183.0% during the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 31,067 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 20,090 shares during the last quarter. 65.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on MFA. JMP Securities decreased their price target on shares of MFA Financial from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a "market outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group boosted their price target on MFA Financial from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $10.00 price target on MFA Financial and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Jones Trading raised MFA Financial to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered MFA Financial from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $12.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.07.

MFA Financial Stock Down 0.6%

NYSE MFA opened at $9.21 on Friday. MFA Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $7.85 and a fifty-two week high of $13.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.88. The stock has a market cap of $945.41 million, a PE ratio of 9.40 and a beta of 1.63.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $57.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $48.80 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 18.86% and a return on equity of 9.44%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MFA Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 15.64%. MFA Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 146.94%.

MFA Financial Profile

MFA Financial, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate investment trust in the United States. It invests in residential mortgage securities, including non-agency mortgage-backed securities, agency MBS, and credit risk transfer securities; residential whole loans, including purchased performing loans, purchased credit deteriorated, and non-performing loans; and mortgage servicing rights related assets.

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