ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) Stock Bumped Up to “Sell” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) from a strong sell rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. JonesTrading dropped their target price on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from $19.00 to $15.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. B. Riley Financial lowered their price target on ARMOUR Residential REIT from $18.00 to $14.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research raised ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.56.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE ARR opened at $12.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a PE ratio of -419.87 and a beta of 1.47. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a 12 month low of $12.02 and a 12 month high of $19.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $14.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.36.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a negative net margin of 5.09% and a positive return on equity of 15.90%. The company had revenue of $121.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.84 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that ARMOUR Residential REIT will post 2.88 earnings per share for the current year.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 16th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 22.9%. ARMOUR Residential REIT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -9,600.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Daniel Staton sold 35,583 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.86, for a total value of $564,346.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ARMOUR Residential REIT

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ARR. State Street Corp boosted its position in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 15.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,745,078 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,802,000 after purchasing an additional 619,020 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in the second quarter valued at approximately $13,757,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 234.6% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 664,247 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $11,080,000 after buying an additional 465,733 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 543,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,073,000 after buying an additional 10,592 shares during the period. Finally, Ascentis Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ascentis Wealth Management LLC now owns 395,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,892,750 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the period. 54.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ARMOUR Residential REIT

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc is a real estate investment trust that invests primarily in residential mortgage-backed securities. Its portfolio generally consists of securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government-sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or by U.S. government agencies such as Ginnie Mae.

The company invests in a range of agency mortgage securities, including fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgage pass-through securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, specified pools and to-be-announced securities.