Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) Short Interest Update

Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,630,000 shares, a decline of 22.0% from the January 15th total of 3,370,000 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CIO Nicholas Letica sold 5,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.28, for a total transaction of $64,713.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 168,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,905,586.80. The trade was a 3.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rebecca B. Sandberg sold 3,785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.14, for a total transaction of $42,164.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 152,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,697,490.92. The trade was a 2.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,136 shares of company stock valued at $377,154 over the last 90 days. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Two Harbors Investment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,154,757 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,491,000 after buying an additional 478,958 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,490,101 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $135,928,000 after buying an additional 329,762 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,898,000. Phocas Financial Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,505,000. Finally, GraniteShares Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,476,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on TWO. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $14.00 price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Compass Point reduced their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investment from $15.75 to $14.75 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investment from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Two Harbors Investment from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Two Harbors Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Two Harbors Investment presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.96.

Two Harbors Investment Price Performance

NYSE TWO opened at $13.39 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $11.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a PE ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 1.84. Two Harbors Investment has a 1 year low of $10.84 and a 1 year high of $14.27.

Two Harbors Investment (NYSE:TWO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.07). Two Harbors Investment had a net margin of 66.24% and a return on equity of 6.52%. On average, analysts predict that Two Harbors Investment will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Two Harbors Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.45%. Two Harbors Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.31%.

About Two Harbors Investment

Two Harbors Investment Corp. invests in, finances, and manages mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), and other financial assets through RoundPoint in the United States. The company target assets include agency RMBS collateralized by fixed rate mortgage loans, adjustable rate mortgage loans, hybrid mortgage loans, or derivatives; and other assets, such as financial and mortgage-related assets, including non-agency securities and non-hedging transactions.