LVZ Inc. Acquires 521 Shares of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY)

LVZ Inc. grew its stake in Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,632 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 521 shares during the period. LVZ Inc.’s holdings in Annaly Capital Management were worth $359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NLY. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 93.1% during the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 275,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,043,000 after purchasing an additional 132,891 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Annaly Capital Management by 9.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 537,125 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,780,000 after acquiring an additional 48,555 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Annaly Capital Management by 22.6% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 652,255 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $13,091,000 after acquiring an additional 120,163 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management in the fourth quarter worth about $527,000. Finally, Tandem Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management during the fourth quarter worth about $327,000. 51.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NLY has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $19.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Annaly Capital Management from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.44.

Annaly Capital Management Stock Performance

Shares of NLY stock opened at $21.43 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.39 billion, a PE ratio of 13.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.53. The business’s fifty day moving average is $19.99 and its 200 day moving average is $19.89. Annaly Capital Management, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.67 and a 52-week high of $22.05.

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.05. Annaly Capital Management had a return on equity of 14.95% and a net margin of 20.70%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Annaly Capital Management, Inc. will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Annaly Capital Management Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.14%. Annaly Capital Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 163.52%.

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.