Short Interest in Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT) Grows By 10.4%

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 854,300 shares, an increase of 10.4% from the January 15th total of 773,900 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 406,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Price Performance

NYSE GPMT opened at $2.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $144.63 million, a PE ratio of -0.75 and a beta of 1.86. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.96. Granite Point Mortgage Trust has a 1-year low of $2.46 and a 1-year high of $5.01.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust (NYSE:GPMT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported ($1.99) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.73) by ($1.26). The firm had revenue of $7.57 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.90 million. Granite Point Mortgage Trust had a negative net margin of 87.21% and a positive return on equity of 0.95%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Granite Point Mortgage Trust will post -2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.91%. Granite Point Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is -5.18%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Granite Point Mortgage Trust

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust by 25.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 23,684 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 4,807 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust during the third quarter worth $66,000. Wolverine Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust during the third quarter worth $506,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust by 25.7% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 54,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,000 after acquiring an additional 11,101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust during the third quarter worth $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPMT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Granite Point Mortgage Trust from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Granite Point Mortgage Trust in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Granite Point Mortgage Trust from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $3.00 to $3.25 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th.

About Granite Point Mortgage Trust

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc, a real estate investment trust, originates, invests in, and manages senior floating-rate commercial mortgage loans, and other debt and debt-like commercial real estate investments in the United States. The company provides intermediate-term bridge or transitional financing for various purposes, including acquisitions, recapitalizations, and refinancing, as well as a range of business plans, including lease-up, renovation, repositioning, and repurposing of the commercial property.