Ellington Credit Declares Monthly Dividend of $0.08 (NYSE:EARN)

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 14.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

Ellington Credit has a payout ratio of 82.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities research analysts expect Ellington Credit to earn $1.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 85.0%.

Ellington Credit Stock Performance

EARN stock opened at $6.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $193.90 million, a P/E ratio of 5.93 and a beta of 1.86. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.78. Ellington Credit has a 52 week low of $5.54 and a 52 week high of $7.26.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.55 million. Ellington Credit had a net margin of 226.01% and a return on equity of 15.81%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.21 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Ellington Credit will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Ellington Credit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th.

Ellington Credit Company Profile

Ellington Credit Company, a real estate investment trust, acquires, invests in, and manages residential mortgage-and real estate-related assets. It acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including agency pools and agency collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); and non-agency RMBS, such as non-agency CMOs, such as investment grade and non-investment grade.