By Robbie Whelan | The Wall Street Journal
Of all the real-estate investment trusts slammed by the stock market since interest rates began rising last year, few were hit as hard as REITs that invest in government-backed mortgage bonds.
Now the stock prices of these companies, known as agency mortgage REITs, have fallen so far that some of the companies in the sector have begun to buy competitors’ shares.
Gary Kain, chief investment officer of American Capital Agency Corp., the nation’s second-largest mortgage REIT, said last week that his company had taken the unusual step of buying up $400 million worth of shares of other agency mortgage REITs in the past two months.
