What The Recent Fed Meeting Means For Mortgage REITs

At the end of the two-day meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve noted that it will commence its balance-sheet normalization program this October. However, the central bank refrained from raising the benchmark interest rates for now.

The central bank will downsize its $4.5 trillion bond portfolio by allowing maturity of up to $10 billion of mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds every month, without reinvesting the proceeds. The monthly cap will gradually increase until it reaches $50 million.

Since an outright sale could cause major turbulence in the bond market, the Fed has resorted to the above-mentioned steady and gradual run-off process. This action is anticipated to put upward pressure on the long end of the yield curve.

Moreover, the Fed’s decision to keep the short-term interest rates unchanged will help steepen the yield curve.

This is a sign of relief for mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs), which typically borrow significant amount of short-term debt and invest in longer-term real estate debts, like mortgage backed securities (MBS) and mortgages. It will also enable these companies to earn higher yield spread.

Further, the prospects of a steepening yield curve will result in capital rotation from stocks to safe-haven bond markets. This is primarily because these markets will provide attractive returns at lower risks. This too can improve the performance of mREITs.

That being said, year to date, the Zacks Mortgage REIT industry has outperformed the broader Zacks Finance Sector. The industry rallied 11.6% versus the 9.6% growth of the broader sector.



Additionally, shares of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) , AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) and ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc (NYSE:ARR) have substantially outperformed the broader finance sector, year to date.

While Annaly carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), AGNC Investment and ARMOUR Residential carry a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

5 Trades Could Profit "Big-League" from Trump Policies

If the stocks above spark your interest, wait until you look into companies primed to make substantial gains from Washington's changing course.

Today Zacks reveals 5 tickers that could benefit from new trends like streamlined drug approvals, tariffs, lower taxes, higher interest rates, and spending surges in defense and infrastructure.

See these buy recommendations now >>

American Capital Agency Corp. (AGNC): Free Stock Analysis Report

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR): Free Stock Analysis Report

Annaly Capital Management Inc (NLY): Free Stock Analysis Report

Original post

Zacks Investment Research