Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $13.63.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on TWO shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Two Harbors Investment from $14.00 to $12.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Compass Point dropped their price target on Two Harbors Investment from $15.75 to $14.75 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 25th. JMP Securities dropped their price target on Two Harbors Investment from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Two Harbors Investment from $11.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Two Harbors Investment to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Two Harbors Investment news, CIO Nicholas Letica sold 6,040 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.13, for a total transaction of $67,225.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 174,672 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,944,099.36. The trade was a 3.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rebecca B. Sandberg sold 3,785 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.14, for a total value of $42,164.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 152,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,697,490.92. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,754 shares of company stock valued at $333,307. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Two Harbors Investment

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investment by 1,680.0% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,225 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new position in shares of Two Harbors Investment during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $64,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investment by 86.5% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,635 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 3,077 shares in the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Two Harbors Investment during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $134,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Two Harbors Investment during the second quarter worth approximately $147,000. 64.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Two Harbors Investment Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Two Harbors Investment stock opened at $11.85 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.73. Two Harbors Investment has a 1 year low of $10.84 and a 1 year high of $14.27. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.46 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Two Harbors Investment (NYSE:TWO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.22). Two Harbors Investment had a positive return on equity of 4.45% and a negative net margin of 87.84%. The firm had revenue of $112.64 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.01) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Two Harbors Investment will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Two Harbors Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 15.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Two Harbors Investment’s payout ratio is -37.34%.

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.