AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) vs. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:PMT) Head-To-Head Survey

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:PMT) and AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust and AG Mortgage Investment Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust	0	5	3	0	2.38
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	0	3	5	0	2.63

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust presently has a consensus target price of $13.75, suggesting a potential upside of 17.98%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a consensus target price of $9.25, suggesting a potential upside of 26.80%. Given AG Mortgage Investment Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe AG Mortgage Investment Trust is more favorable than PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust and AG Mortgage Investment Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust	$307.46 million	3.30	$127.87 million	$0.98	11.89
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	$75.67 million	3.06	$48.67 million	$0.88	8.29

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has higher revenue and earnings than AG Mortgage Investment Trust. AG Mortgage Investment Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust and AG Mortgage Investment Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust	41.59%	9.53%	0.71%
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	10.13%	14.42%	0.59%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.4% of PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.7%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.2%. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust pays out 163.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays out 109.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust beats AG Mortgage Investment Trust on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, through its subsidiary, primarily invests in mortgage-related assets in the United States. The company operates through: Credit Sensitive Strategies, Interest Rate Sensitive Strategies, Correspondent Production segments. Its Credit Sensitive Strategies segment invests in credit risk transfer (CRT) agreements, CRT securities, subordinate mortgage-backed securities (MBS), distressed loans, and real estate. The company's Interest Rate Sensitive Strategies segment engages in investing in mortgage servicing rights, excess servicing spreads, and agency and senior non-agency MBS, as well as related interest rate hedging activities. Its Correspondent Production segment is involved in purchasing, pooling, and reselling newly originated prime credit residential loans directly or in the form of MBS. The company primarily sells its loans to government-sponsored entities or PennyMac Loan Services, LLC. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Westlake Village, California.

About AG Mortgage Investment Trust

AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. operates as a residential mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States. Its investment portfolio includes residential investments, including non-agency loans, agency-eligible loans, re-and non-performing loans, and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as commercial loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is based in New York, New York.