Entropy Technologies LP Takes $147,000 Position in MFA Financial, Inc. $MFA

Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 15,565 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $147,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MFA. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of MFA Financial by 27.9% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 297,873 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,056,000 after acquiring an additional 65,058 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $11,139,000 after purchasing an additional 147,498 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 15,651.0% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 15,751 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 15,651 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in MFA Financial by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,182,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $104,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,847 shares during the period. Finally, AXS Investments LLC raised its holdings in MFA Financial by 8.8% in the first quarter. AXS Investments LLC now owns 149,890 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,538,000 after purchasing an additional 12,098 shares in the last quarter. 65.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on MFA shares. Jones Trading reissued a “hold” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MFA Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $10.50 to $10.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.05.

MFA Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MFA opened at $9.64 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $9.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.49. The company has a market capitalization of $984.66 million, a PE ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 1.73. MFA Financial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.85 and a 1-year high of $11.28.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $101.03 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.40 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 17.62% and a return on equity of 8.61%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.37 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MFA Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.9%. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 169.41%.

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.