ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) Announces $0.24 Monthly Dividend

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, November 27th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 15.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th.

ARMOUR Residential REIT has a dividend payout ratio of 69.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ARMOUR Residential REIT to earn $4.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 72.0%.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ARR traded up $0.13 during trading on Friday, hitting $18.91. 730,814 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,208,467. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $19.43 and a 200 day moving average of $19.77. The company has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 8.02 and a beta of 1.51. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a 52-week low of $17.35 and a 52-week high of $21.93.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $127.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.95 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a net margin of 24.17% and a return on equity of 16.76%. Sell-side analysts forecast that ARMOUR Residential REIT will post 3.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARR has been the subject of several analyst reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com raised ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at ARMOUR Residential REIT

In other news, Chairman Daniel C. Staton acquired 10,000 shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $19.86 per share, for a total transaction of $198,600.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 24,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $477,434.40. This trade represents a 71.23 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert C. Hain acquired 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $19.08 per share, for a total transaction of $47,700.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 9,023 shares in the company, valued at $172,158.84. This represents a 38.33 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About ARMOUR Residential REIT

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.