Centaurus Financial Inc. Makes New $111,000 Investment in Ready Capital Co. (NYSE:RC)

Centaurus Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Ready Capital Co. (NYSE:RC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 10,869 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $111,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Waterfall Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ready Capital in the fourth quarter valued at $40,067,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Ready Capital by 0.4% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,037,068 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $20,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,610 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Ready Capital by 4.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,756,701 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,760,000 after buying an additional 70,476 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Ready Capital by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,300,267 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,328,000 after buying an additional 30,730 shares during the period. Finally, Ramsey Quantitative Systems purchased a new position in Ready Capital during the third quarter worth about $12,473,000. 55.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Ready Capital from $10.50 to $9.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Ready Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down from $13.00) on shares of Ready Capital in a research report on Monday, March 4th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded Ready Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Finally, BTIG Research reduced their target price on Ready Capital from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ready Capital presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.93.

Insider Activity at Ready Capital

In other Ready Capital news, Director Gilbert E. Nathan purchased 10,000 shares of Ready Capital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.29 per share, with a total value of $82,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 95,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,614.21. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.95% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ready Capital Price Performance

RC stock opened at $8.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 1.76. Ready Capital Co. has a 1 year low of $7.93 and a 1 year high of $11.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.22 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.19.

Ready Capital (NYSE:RC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. Ready Capital had a return on equity of 8.11% and a net margin of 23.81%. The business had revenue of $232.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.34 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Ready Capital Co. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ready Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 14.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Ready Capital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.53%.

About Ready Capital

Ready Capital Corporation operates as a real estate finance company in the United States. It operates through two segments: LMM Commercial Real Estate and Small Business Lending. The company originates, acquires, finances, and services lower-to-middle-market (LLM) commercial real estate loans, small business administration (SBA) loans, residential mortgage loans, construction loans, and mortgage-backed securities collateralized primarily by LLM loans, or other real estate-related investments.