B. Riley & Co. analyst Rich Eckert thinks the government "should get out of the way" of the housing market, and discussing the potential effects of mortgage refinancing programs.
“If the SEC were to regulate [mortgage REITs], to make their strategies unprofitable or unable to generate the necessary returns, they would be stanching a good bit of the flow of private capital to the housing and housing finance markets,” said analyst Rich Eckert of B. Riley & Co., LLC.
He said mortgage REITs can play “an even larger role in the post-Fannie and Freddie world when you are eventually able to privatize the mortgage market. Why would you want to shut these players out?”
Eckert, who covers real-estate companies including American Capital Agency Corp., Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation and Hatteras Financial Corp., said he does not think the SEC will ultimately remove the exemption for all mortgage REITs.
Continue Reading >For investors who still tremble at the thought of investing in companies that rely on mortgage-backed securities to earn a buck, fear not, says Rich Eckert, an analyst for B. Riley & Co. LLC who initiated coverage of six agency mortgage REITs on Aug. 2. As the former CFO and risk manager of the hedge fund Lahde Capital Management, which shut its doors shortly after making investors a bundle in the subprime mortgage meltdown, Eckert watched the MBS market collapse in 2007 and 2008 but now sees an opportunity for MBS REIT investors, he tells SNL.
Continue Reading >We are please to announce that Richard Eckert, CFA, will join our Financial Industries Group as a Senior Research Analyst.
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