Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) Announces Monthly Dividend of $0.13

Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) declared a monthly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.84%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

Ellington Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 2.6% per year over the last three years. Ellington Financial has a payout ratio of 88.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Research analysts expect Ellington Financial to earn $1.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.4%.

Ellington Financial Price Performance

EFC opened at $12.15 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $12.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.59. Ellington Financial has a 12-month low of $10.88 and a 12-month high of $13.46. The firm has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a current ratio of 37.04, a quick ratio of 37.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.87.

Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. Ellington Financial had a net margin of 106.40% and a return on equity of 10.26%. The business had revenue of $33.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ellington Financial will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, B. Riley raised Ellington Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.58.

Insider Transactions at Ellington Financial

In other Ellington Financial news, CIO Michael W. Vranos sold 14,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.48, for a total value of $174,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 168,359 shares in the company, valued at $2,101,120.32. This represents a 7.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

Ellington Financial Company Profile

Ellington Financial Inc, through its subsidiary, Ellington Financial Operating Partnership LLC, acquires and manages mortgage-related, consumer-related, corporate-related, and other financial assets in the United States. The company acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by prime jumbo, Alt-A, manufactured housing, and subprime mortgage; RMBS for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the U.S.