Ellington Credit Company (NYSE:EARN) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Ellington Credit Company (NYSE:EARN) saw a large drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 924,751 shares, a drop of 16.9% from the March 31st total of 1,112,566 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 329,229 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Ellington Credit

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Ellington Credit during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ellington Credit during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in shares of Ellington Credit during the second quarter valued at approximately $83,000. World Investment Advisors bought a new position in shares of Ellington Credit during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $115,000. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ellington Credit by 109.1% during the second quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 36,350 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 18,967 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 20.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Ellington Credit from $6.00 to $5.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ellington Credit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Ellington Credit Trading Up 1.4%

NYSE EARN traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $4.79. 423,826 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 393,514. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $4.64 and a 200 day moving average of $5.07. Ellington Credit has a twelve month low of $4.27 and a twelve month high of $6.08. The company has a market capitalization of $179.77 million, a P/E ratio of -11.67 and a beta of 1.28.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 4th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.03). Ellington Credit had a negative net margin of 34.31% and a positive return on equity of 16.47%. The firm had revenue of ($17.48) million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.71 million.

Ellington Credit Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 20.1%. Ellington Credit’s dividend payout ratio is presently -234.15%.

About Ellington Credit

Ellington Credit Income Fund (NYSE: EARN) is a closed-end management investment company that seeks to generate current income through a diversified portfolio of mortgage- and asset-backed securities. The fund primarily invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and asset-backed securities (ABS), with additional exposure to commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and related structured credit instruments. To enhance income and manage risk, the fund employs leverage and derivative strategies such as interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, allowing it to adjust duration and credit exposure dynamically.

The fund is externally managed and advised by Ellington Management Group, LLC, an established investment firm specializing in mortgage credit and structured products.