Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) Rating Increased to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $23.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price target of $19.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 10.15% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on NLY. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Annaly Capital Management from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Compass Point boosted their price objective on Annaly Capital Management from $22.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com lowered Annaly Capital Management from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Annaly Capital Management currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.38.

Annaly Capital Management Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NLY opened at $20.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.45 billion, a PE ratio of -21.53 and a beta of 1.52. Annaly Capital Management has a 1 year low of $14.52 and a 1 year high of $21.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.69.

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $318.00 million. Annaly Capital Management had a negative net margin of 12.02% and a positive return on equity of 15.24%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Annaly Capital Management will post 2.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David L. Finkelstein sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.05, for a total value of $1,002,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 612,469 shares in the company, valued at $12,280,003.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Annaly Capital Management

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NLY. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management in the 4th quarter valued at $210,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 17,207 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,820 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Annaly Capital Management during the 4th quarter valued at about $301,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Annaly Capital Management in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $110,244,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 527,683 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,221,000 after buying an additional 57,322 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 51.56% of the company’s stock.

About Annaly Capital Management

Annaly Capital Management, Inc, a diversified capital manager, engages in mortgage finance. The company invests in agency mortgage-backed securities collateralized by residential mortgages; non-agency residential whole loans and securitized products within the residential and commercial markets; mortgage servicing rights; agency commercial mortgage-backed securities; to-be-announced forward contracts; residential mortgage loans; and agency or private label credit risk transfer securities.