ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) Declares $0.24 Monthly Dividend

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) announced a monthly dividend on Friday, November 29th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 15.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th.

ARMOUR Residential REIT has a dividend payout ratio of 69.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ARMOUR Residential REIT to earn $4.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 72.0%.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE ARR traded up $0.14 on Friday, hitting $18.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 730,797 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,208,463. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a 52-week low of $17.35 and a 52-week high of $21.93. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.77. The firm has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.96 and a beta of 1.51.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $127.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.95 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a return on equity of 16.76% and a net margin of 24.17%. On average, research analysts forecast that ARMOUR Residential REIT will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at ARMOUR Residential REIT

In related news, Chairman Daniel C. Staton bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $19.86 per share, for a total transaction of $198,600.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 24,040 shares in the company, valued at approximately $477,434.40. This represents a 71.23 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert C. Hain purchased 2,500 shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $19.08 per share, for a total transaction of $47,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $172,158.84. This represents a 38.33 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.83.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Company Profile

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the United States. Its securities portfolio primarily consists of the United States Government-sponsored entity's (GSE) and the Government National Mortgage Administration's issued or guaranteed securities backed by fixed rate, hybrid adjustable rate, and adjustable-rate home loans; and unsecured notes and bonds issued by the GSE and the United States treasuries, as well as money market instruments.