Sunbelt Securities Inc. Decreases Holdings in Ready Capital Co. (NYSE:RC)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. reduced its stake in Ready Capital Co. (NYSE:RC) by 8.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 70,176 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,753 shares during the quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Ready Capital were worth $641,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. &PARTNERS lifted its holdings in Ready Capital by 32.0% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 184,465 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,684,000 after purchasing an additional 44,760 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Ready Capital by 28.2% in the 1st quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 37,614 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 8,285 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ready Capital by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,163,763 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $114,429,000 after purchasing an additional 735,949 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ready Capital by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 428,999 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,397,000 after purchasing an additional 26,515 shares during the period. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ready Capital in the fourth quarter worth $111,000. Institutional investors own 55.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ready Capital

In other news, Director Gilbert E. Nathan purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.29 per share, for a total transaction of $82,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 95,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,614.21. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ready Capital Trading Down 1.3 %

RC stock opened at $8.39 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a PE ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.42. 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 one year low of $7.93 and a one year high of $11.97. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $8.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.12.

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

Ready Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 14.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Ready Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on RC shares. BTIG Research reduced their target price on Ready Capital from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price objective (down from $13.00) on shares of Ready Capital in a research report on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Ready Capital from $10.50 to $9.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of Ready Capital from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective (down from $10.00) on shares of Ready Capital in a report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.93.

Ready Capital Profile

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.