Wedbush Securities Monday morning raised its price target on Freddie Mac common to $0.75 a share and Fannie Mae to $0.50. Both previously were at zero. Still, the research firm has an “underperform” rating on the stocks, which trade on the OTC. Wards of the federal government since the autumn of 2008, the GSEs have been earning money hand-over-fist since 2012…
The GSEs, as most mortgage professionals (and equities investors) hopefully know, are a complicated financial story shaded by government charters, federal housing missions, politics and much more….
In a new research paper, Wedbush analysts Jay McCanless, Brian Violino and Henry Coffey note while the mortgage giants have the ability to generate “substantial comprehensive net income in most periods, under the current state of affairs, where all gains in quarterly net worth result in an increase to the liquidation preference of Treasury’s Senior preferred shares, we continue to view the common shares as essentially worthless.”