Bank of New York Mellon Corp Buys 72,867 Shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) by 17.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 479,690 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 72,867 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.47% of MFA Financial worth $4,888,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. bought a new position in MFA Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in MFA Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Wolverine Asset Management LLC bought a new position in MFA Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $110,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in shares of MFA Financial during the 4th quarter valued at $135,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 639.9% in the 4th quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 13,888 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 12,011 shares during the last quarter. 65.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MFA. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $14.00 price target for the company. Finally, JMP Securities dropped their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.70.

MFA Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:MFA opened at $10.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.25. MFA Financial, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.36 and a 52-week high of $13.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a PE ratio of 13.47 and a beta of 2.18.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $50.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.06 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 9.61%. Equities analysts forecast that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MFA Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.20%. This is an increase from MFA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 177.78%.

About MFA Financial

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.