MFA Financial, Inc. (MFA) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.36 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a 2.9% increase from MFA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35.

MFA Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 206.1% per year over the last three years. MFA Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 94.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble.

MFA Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MFA opened at $10.59 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 2.18. MFA Financial has a 1-year low of $9.36 and a 1-year high of $13.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $10.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.17.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $50.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.06 million. MFA Financial had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 16.47%. Sell-side analysts expect that MFA Financial will post 1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MFA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage on MFA Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $14.00 price target for the company. JMP Securities reduced their target price on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of MFA Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.70.

MFA Financial Company 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.