Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) Announces $0.08 Monthly Dividend

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) declared a monthly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

Ellington Credit has a dividend payout ratio of 81.4% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities 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 Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Ellington Credit stock opened at $6.54 on Friday. Ellington Credit has a 12 month low of $5.54 and a 12 month high of $7.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $6.63 and a 200 day moving average of $6.82. The firm has a market cap of $190.82 million, a PE ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.86.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Ellington Credit

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.