Short Interest in Two Harbors Investments Corp (NYSE:TWO) Expands By 24.4%

Two Harbors Investments Corp (NYSE:TWO - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,720,000 shares, an increase of 24.4% from the May 15th total of 5,400,000 shares. Approximately 6.6% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,660,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TWO has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investments from $12.50 to $10.50 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investments from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investments from $14.00 to $13.50 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Two Harbors Investments from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Two Harbors Investments from $12.95 to $13.25 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $13.14.

Two Harbors Investments Stock Down 2.8%

Two Harbors Investments stock traded down $0.31 during trading on Friday, reaching $10.44. The stock had a trading volume of 5,739,117 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,297,712. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Two Harbors Investments has a 52-week low of $10.16 and a 52-week high of $14.28. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.09. The stock has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of -20.46 and a beta of 1.27.

Two Harbors Investments (NYSE:TWO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.04). Two Harbors Investments had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 3.50%. The company had revenue of ($20.33) million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of ($28.53) million. On average, analysts predict that Two Harbors Investments will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Two Harbors Investments Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 14.95%. Two Harbors Investments's payout ratio is currently -352.94%.

Institutional Trading of Two Harbors Investments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TWO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,490,101 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $135,928,000 after acquiring an additional 329,762 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,313,837 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $27,373,000 after purchasing an additional 371,436 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,154,757 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $25,491,000 after purchasing an additional 478,958 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,542,458 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $18,247,000 after buying an additional 57,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,371,702 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $16,227,000 after buying an additional 164,452 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.19% of the company's stock.

Two Harbors Investments Company Profile

Two Harbors Investment Corp. invests in, finances, and manages mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), and other financial assets through RoundPoint in the United States. The company target assets include agency RMBS collateralized by fixed rate mortgage loans, adjustable rate mortgage loans, hybrid mortgage loans, or derivatives; and other assets, such as financial and mortgage-related assets, including non-agency securities and non-hedging transactions.