Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Takes $192,000 Position in Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new position in Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 14,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $192,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment in the 4th quarter valued at about $8,829,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investment by 38.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $115,000 after buying an additional 2,306 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment during the 4th quarter valued at $278,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investment during the 4th quarter worth $520,000. Finally, Howard Financial Services LTD. grew its position in Two Harbors Investment by 2.3% in the first quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 39,657 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 903 shares in the last quarter. 64.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on TWO. Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage on Two Harbors Investment in a research note on Friday, August 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upgraded shares of Two Harbors Investment from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $13.50 to $14.50 in a research report on Friday, June 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Two Harbors Investment from $12.50 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Two Harbors Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Two Harbors Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.90.

Two Harbors Investment Trading Down 6.0 %

Two Harbors Investment stock opened at $13.05 on Wednesday. Two Harbors Investment Corp. has a 52-week low of $9.83 and a 52-week high of $14.59. The company has a market cap of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.33 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.17.

Two Harbors Investment (NYSE:TWO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $115.95 million during the quarter. Two Harbors Investment had a net margin of 27.71% and a return on equity of 3.64%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.04) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Two Harbors Investment Corp. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Two Harbors Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 1st. Two Harbors Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.12%.

Two Harbors Investment Company Profile

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.