ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,430,000 shares, an increase of 8.8% from the September 30th total of 4,070,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,210,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.7 days. Approximately 9.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ARR. StockNews.com upgraded ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ARMOUR Residential REIT has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Daniel C. Staton bought 10,000 shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $19.86 per share, with a total value of $198,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 24,040 shares in the company, valued at $477,434.40. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 67.8% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,374 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in ARMOUR Residential REIT during the second quarter worth approximately $99,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 304.3% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,720 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 5,058 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new position in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in the 2nd quarter valued at about $221,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 19.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,057 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 2,311 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.17% of the company’s stock.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ARR remained flat at $19.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The stock had a trading volume of 2,063,065 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,147,688. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a twelve month low of $13.71 and a twelve month high of $21.93. The stock has a market cap of $926.78 million, a P/E ratio of -26.56 and a beta of 1.50. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $20.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.74.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $127.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.95 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a positive return on equity of 16.64%. As a group, analysts expect that ARMOUR Residential REIT will post 3.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 15.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. ARMOUR Residential REIT’s payout ratio is -400.00%.

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.