Annaly Capital Raises Quarterly Dividend

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. raised its quarterly common dividend to $0.75 a share from $0.70, a 7.14% increase, with the stock trading ex-dividend on June 30, 2026.

The new payout implies an annual dividend of $3.00 a share and a forward annual yield of 13.42% based on a share price of $22.36. The increase marks one consecutive year of dividend growth for Annaly, which previously cut its dividend in 2023. SmarterDividends assigns the payout a safety score of 51 out of 100, or a C grade.

Context

Annaly is a real estate-sector company and one of the best-known mortgage REITs. The company describes itself as a diversified capital manager focused on mortgage finance, with investment strategies spanning Agency securities, residential credit and mortgage servicing rights. Its principal objective is to generate net income for distribution to shareholders while managing a diversified mortgage-finance portfolio, according to the company’s dividend announcement and investor materials (https://www.annaly.com/news-insights/press-releases/2026/06-10-2026-211512691; https://www.annaly.com/).

In announcing the increase, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer David Finkelstein said the higher dividend reflected “the strong performance of Annaly’s diversified housing finance portfolio” and cited disciplined portfolio construction, hedging and capital structure (https://www.annaly.com/news-insights/press-releases/2026/06-10-2026-211512691).

The dividend move followed Annaly’s first-quarter results, in which management said earnings available for distribution exceeded the common dividend and highlighted continued activity across its Agency, Residential Credit and Mortgage Servicing Rights businesses. The company also said its housing-finance platform had produced positive economic returns across multiple recent quarters, while noting that interest rates, yield-curve changes, prepayment rates and financing conditions remain material risks for the business (https://www.annaly.com/news-insights/press-releases/2026/04-21-2026-210600681).

What It Means For Income Investors

For income-focused holders, the increase lifts Annaly’s cash distribution after a period that included a prior dividend reduction. The yield remains high, which is typical of mortgage REITs but also reflects the sector’s sensitivity to leverage, funding costs, interest-rate volatility and changes in mortgage-backed securities valuations. The C safety grade indicates a middling payout-risk profile rather than a low-risk income stream.

Annaly’s market capitalization is $16.38 billion, giving the company scale within the mortgage REIT universe. The central question for dividend investors is whether portfolio earnings and financing conditions continue to support the higher quarterly payout through changing rate and housing-market conditions.