Ellington Financial says will recommend to cut monthly dividend to 13c from 15c

CEO Laurence Penn stated: “Our adjusted distributable earnings did drop during the quarter, but it should recover as Longbridge continues to build back towards profitability, as we work out a few nonperforming commercial mortgage loans and REO assets, and as we continue to deploy new capital and rotate capital into higher-yielding sectors. That said, management expects to recommend to the board a reduction of the monthly dividend from $0.15 to $0.13 per share, beginning in March. Notably, this is just $0.01 below the $0.14 per share monthly dividend level we set five years ago, when we first shifted from a quarterly to a monthly dividend. Looking ahead, our diversified capital base now includes the common equity, low-cost preferred equity and unsecured debt added through the merger. This diversified capital base, together with our ample liquidity and additional untapped borrowing capacity, should allow us to capitalize on the many attractive investment opportunities we are seeing, including high-yielding lending opportunities in our proprietary loan pipelines and distressed situations in commercial real estate debt.”