Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, mortgage REIT MFA Financial (NYSE: MFA) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at MFA's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

MFA facts

Headquarters (Founded) New York (1997)
Market Cap $2.7 billion
Industry Mortgage REIT
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $329.5 million
Management

Chairman/CEO Stewart Zimmerman (since 1997)

CFO Stephen Yarad (since 2010)
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 13.6%
Cash/Debt $565.1 million / $9.1 billion
Dividend Yield 13.3%
Competitors

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY)

Capstead Mortgage (NYSE: CMO)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 90% of the 323 members who have rated MFA believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include giannelli5 and All-Star TSIF, who is ranked in the top 0.1% of our community.

Earlier this month, giannelli5 listed a few of MFA's positives: "Fantastic dividend; bought near low; excellent growth potential."

Over the past three years, in fact, MFA has grown its top line at a breakneck rate of 70% annually. That's much faster than industry peers like Annaly (35%), Capstead (16%), and Anworth Mortgage (NYSE: ANH) (48%).

CAPS All-Star TSIF expands on the opportunity:

Mortgage REIT's certainly have risk along with the rest of the equities. Overall, however, I believe the current environment for those backed by Fannie/Freddie and with a decent leverage ratio have a good chance of outperforming. This is assuming the dividend has some stability, which I believe it does. ...

There is a variety among these mREIT's depending on leverage, agency, non-agency etc. Here on CAPS, I'm averaging down, expecting the dividends to remain intact and over a long period of time dividend reinvestment to beat the S&P. During a boom cycle, such as the recovery from March 2009 to April 2011 it's hard for a dividend payer to beat the S&P. I expect the next year to be marked by much more constrained equity growth.

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