Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 70,847 Shares of MFA Financial, Inc. $MFA

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. has increased its stake in MFA Financial by 0.7%, acquiring an additional 70,847 shares, bringing its total ownership to approximately 10.18 million shares valued at $104.47 million.
• MFA Financial announced a new quarterly dividend of $0.4688, representing a significant increase from the previous $0.36, with a dividend yield of 18.6%.
• Despite posting a quarterly EPS of $0.24, which fell short of analysts' expectations of $0.29, revenue was reported at $61.28 million, exceeding forecasts.

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA - Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,182,250 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 70,847 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 9.92% of MFA Financial worth $104,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of MFA Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $18,325,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 18.6% in the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 6,030,535 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $61,874,000 after acquiring an additional 944,608 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 531.6% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 794,394 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $8,095,000 after acquiring an additional 668,618 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in MFA Financial by 15.7% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,085,679 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $11,139,000 after acquiring an additional 147,498 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in MFA Financial by 17.8% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 830,830 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $8,524,000 after acquiring an additional 125,328 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MFA. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of MFA Financial from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. JMP Securities reduced their target price on shares of MFA Financial from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered MFA Financial from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $12.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $10.00 price objective on MFA Financial and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Jones Trading restated a "hold" rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $12.07.

MFA Financial Price Performance

Shares of MFA Financial stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $10.04. 469,119 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,308,884. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.76. The firm has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 1.64. MFA Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $7.85 and a 52 week high of $13.45.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $61.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.50 million. MFA Financial had a return on equity of 8.61% and a net margin of 17.62%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

MFA Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a $0.4688 dividend. This is a positive change from MFA Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 18.7%. MFA Financial's payout ratio is 165.52%.

About MFA Financial

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.