Lument Finance Trust, Inc. (NYSE:LFT) Short Interest Down 38.6% in October

Lument Finance Trust, Inc. (NYSE:LFT) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 81,500 shares, a drop of 38.6% from the October 15th total of 132,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 84,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lument Finance Trust

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Lument Finance Trust by 8.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,557,677 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,879,000 after acquiring an additional 127,887 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lument Finance Trust by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 438,953 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,111,000 after purchasing an additional 11,718 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lument Finance Trust by 110.7% in the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 75,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $187,000 after purchasing an additional 39,396 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lument Finance Trust during the third quarter worth $120,000. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in Lument Finance Trust in the third quarter valued at about $85,000. Institutional investors own 19.45% of the company’s stock.

Lument Finance Trust Price Performance

LFT traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $2.52. The company had a trading volume of 76,071 shares, compared to its average volume of 91,029. Lument Finance Trust has a twelve month low of $2.00 and a twelve month high of $2.75. The company has a market capitalization of $131.78 million, a PE ratio of 6.99 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.39, a quick ratio of 5.78 and a current ratio of 6.29. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.49.

Lument Finance Trust (NYSE:LFT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The technology company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.01. Lument Finance Trust had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $28.93 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.06 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Lument Finance Trust will post 0.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lument Finance Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Lument Finance Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Raymond James lowered Lument Finance Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th.

About Lument Finance Trust

Lument Finance Trust, Inc, a real estate investment trust, focuses on investing in, financing, and managing a portfolio of commercial real estate (CRE) debt investments in the United States. The company primarily invests in transitional floating rate CRE mortgage loans on middle market multi-family assets; and other CRE -related investments, including mezzanine loans, preferred equity, commercial mortgage-backed securities, fixed rate loans, construction loans, and other CRE debt instruments.