Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) Plans Monthly Dividend of $0.08

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 14.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Ellington Credit has a payout ratio of 82.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Analysts expect Ellington Credit to earn $1.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 85.0%.

Ellington Credit Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of EARN traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $6.56. 754,530 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 618,457. Ellington Credit has a 52 week low of $5.57 and a 52 week high of $7.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.75. The firm has a market cap of $191.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 1.85.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.55 million. Ellington Credit had a return on equity of 15.81% and a net margin of 226.01%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.21 EPS. Analysts forecast that Ellington Credit will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Ellington Credit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th.

Ellington Credit Company Profile

Ellington Credit Company, a real estate investment trust, acquires, invests in, and manages residential mortgage-and real estate-related assets. It acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including agency pools and agency collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); and non-agency RMBS, such as non-agency CMOs, such as investment grade and non-investment grade.