Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Annaly Capital Management Call Options (NYSE:NLY)

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 21,550 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 167% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,074 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NLY has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Annaly Capital Management from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on Annaly Capital Management in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $19.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Annaly Capital Management currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.44.

Annaly Capital Management Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE NLY traded up $0.05 on Thursday, hitting $21.22. The company had a trading volume of 4,691,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,564,292. The business has a 50 day moving average of $20.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.32, a PEG ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.53. Annaly Capital Management has a 12-month low of $17.67 and a 12-month high of $22.11.

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.05. Annaly Capital Management had a net margin of 20.70% and a return on equity of 14.95%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Annaly Capital Management will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NLY. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 209.9% in the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 850 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Annaly Capital Management by 78.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,630 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 717 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,143 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Annaly Capital Management during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Institutional investors own 51.56% of the company’s stock.

About Annaly Capital Management

Annaly Capital Management, Inc, a diversified capital manager, engages in mortgage finance. The company invests in agency mortgage-backed securities collateralized by residential mortgages; non-agency residential whole loans and securitized products within the residential and commercial markets; mortgage servicing rights; agency commercial mortgage-backed securities; to-be-announced forward contracts; residential mortgage loans; and agency or private label credit risk transfer securities.