Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Jonestrading

Jonestrading started coverage on shares of Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm set a “hold” rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. BTIG Research lowered their target price on shares of Ellington Financial from $15.50 to $13.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com cut shares of Ellington Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Ellington Financial from $14.00 to $13.25 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $14.50 price target on shares of Ellington Financial in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ellington Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.95.

Ellington Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EFC opened at $11.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $958.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52 and a beta of 1.92. Ellington Financial has a 12 month low of $10.88 and a 12 month high of $14.21. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.30, a current ratio of 46.75 and a quick ratio of 46.75.

Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.01). Ellington Financial had a net margin of 78.53% and a return on equity of 11.36%. The company had revenue of $27.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Analysts expect that Ellington Financial will post 1.53 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ellington Financial

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ellington Financial by 8.6% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,559,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,142,000 after buying an additional 918,081 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ellington Financial by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,833,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $61,432,000 after purchasing an additional 569,935 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Ellington Financial by 9.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,524,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,202,000 after purchasing an additional 215,824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ellington Financial by 1.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,571,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,594,000 after purchasing an additional 27,118 shares in the last quarter. 55.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Ellington Financial

Ellington Financial Inc, through its subsidiary, Ellington Financial Operating Partnership LLC, acquires and manages mortgage-related, consumer-related, corporate-related, and other financial assets in the United States. The company acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by prime jumbo, Alt-A, manufactured housing, and subprime mortgage; RMBS for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the U.S.