Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) Plans Monthly Dividend of $0.13

Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) announced a monthly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, December 26th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Ellington Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 12.7% per year over the last three years. Ellington Financial has a payout ratio of 96.3% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Analysts expect Ellington Financial to earn $1.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.4%.

Ellington Financial Stock Performance

Ellington Financial stock opened at $12.47 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.55. Ellington Financial has a fifty-two week low of $10.88 and a fifty-two week high of $13.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.87, a current ratio of 37.04 and a quick ratio of 37.04. The company has a market cap of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.44 and a beta of 1.99.

Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. Ellington Financial had a return on equity of 10.26% and a net margin of 106.40%. The firm had revenue of $33.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ellington Financial will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ellington Financial

In other news, CIO Michael W. Vranos sold 14,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.48, for a total value of $174,720.00. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 168,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,101,120.32. This represents a 7.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 4.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ellington Financial Company Profile

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.