MFA Financial (MFA) Competitors

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) and ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Is MFA or ARR a better dividend stock?

MFA Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.5%. ARMOUR Residential REIT pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.3%. MFA Financial pays out 177.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ARMOUR Residential REIT pays out -669.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ARMOUR Residential REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of MFA or ARR?

65.3% of MFA Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of ARMOUR Residential REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of MFA Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of ARMOUR Residential REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend MFA or ARR?

MFA Financial currently has a consensus target price of $13.70, indicating a potential upside of 56.93%. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a consensus target price of $20.50, indicating a potential upside of 44.26%. Given MFA Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe MFA Financial is more favorable than ARMOUR Residential REIT.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MFA Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
ARMOUR Residential REIT	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media prefer MFA or ARR?

In the previous week, MFA Financial had 1 more articles in the media than ARMOUR Residential REIT. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for MFA Financial and 7 mentions for ARMOUR Residential REIT. ARMOUR Residential REIT's average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat MFA Financial's score of 0.85 indicating that ARMOUR Residential REIT is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MFA Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ARMOUR Residential REIT	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is MFA or ARR more profitable?

MFA Financial has a net margin of 16.47% compared to ARMOUR Residential REIT's net margin of -2.61%. ARMOUR Residential REIT's return on equity of 16.00% beat MFA Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MFA Financial	16.47%	9.61%	1.64%
ARMOUR Residential REIT	-2.61%	16.00%	1.65%

Which has higher earnings & valuation, MFA or ARR?

MFA Financial has higher revenue and earnings than ARMOUR Residential REIT. ARMOUR Residential REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MFA Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MFA Financial	$252.85M	3.54	$80.16M	$0.81	10.78
ARMOUR Residential REIT	-$478K	-2,377.29	-$14.39M	-$0.43	-33.05

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in MFA or ARR?

MFA Financial received 104 more outperform votes than ARMOUR Residential REIT when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.51% of users gave MFA Financial an outperform vote while only 49.07% of users gave ARMOUR Residential REIT an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MFA Financial	Outperform Votes 368 58.51%	Underperform Votes 261 41.49%
ARMOUR Residential REIT	Outperform Votes 264 49.07%	Underperform Votes 274 50.93%

Which has more volatility and risk, MFA or ARR?

MFA Financial has a beta of 1.61, meaning that its stock price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ARMOUR Residential REIT has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

MFA Financial beats ARMOUR Residential REIT on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.