Canadian Halal Investor.

NYSE Shariah screener · October 2026

Is Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY) Halal?

FAIL

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. · NYSE: NLY · Real Estate

The short answer

Annaly fails the Shariah screen at the first gate: its core business is interest-based lending — earning the spread between mortgage-asset yields and borrowing costs — and its $113.8 billion of interest-bearing debt is about 745.7% of its ~$15.26 billion market cap, far above the 33% ceiling.

Gate 1 — Business activity: FAIL

Gate 1 — business activity: FAIL. Annaly Capital Management, Inc., founded in 1997 and headquartered in New York, is a mortgage real estate investment trust. Per its FY2025 Form 10-K (Item 1), it invests in agency mortgage-backed securities (89% of the portfolio at December 31, 2025), residential credit (7%) and mortgage servicing rights (4%), funded by repurchase agreements ($81.9 billion outstanding) and other interest-bearing debt.

Its stated business model is earning the interest-rate spread: the 10-K says it uses "capital coupled with borrowed funds to invest primarily in real estate related investments, earning the spread between the yield on our assets and the cost of our borrowings and hedging activities." Interest income of $5,959,205 thousand in FY2025 is its top revenue line. Interest-based lending and earning interest spreads is the core business, not an incidental activity — so the business fails this gate.

Gate 2 — Debt and cash: FAIL

Gate 2 — interest-bearing debt: FAIL (745.7%, ceiling 33%). Per Annaly's FY2025 Form 10-K consolidated balance sheet (December 31, 2025), total interest-bearing debt was $113,792,131 thousand: repurchase agreements $81,865,723 thousand, other secured financing $1,075,000 thousand, debt issued by securitization vehicles $28,918,753 thousand, and participations issued $1,932,655 thousand.

$113.8 billion of interest-bearing debt against a market capitalization of about $15.26 billion (Finnhub, October 2, 2026) is 745.7%, far above the 33% ceiling. Cash and cash equivalents of $2,037,838 thousand at December 31, 2025 represent about 13.4% of market cap.

Gate 3 — Non-compliant income: FAIL

Gate 3 — non-compliant income: FAIL (~84.3%, ceiling 5%). Interest income is Annaly's core business line. Its FY2025 Form 10-K discloses interest income of $5,959,205 thousand as its own line on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (with interest expense of $4,823,705 thousand).

Against net servicing income of $519,319 thousand and total other income of $589,630 thousand, interest income is about 84.3% of the combined income lines — far above the 5% ceiling. Interest-based earnings are the business itself (see the business-activity gate above).

Key figures used

Frequently asked questions

What does Annaly Capital Management do?

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: NLY) is a mortgage real estate investment trust founded in 1997 and headquartered in New York. It uses its capital plus borrowed funds to invest in mortgage assets - at December 31, 2025 its portfolio was 89% agency mortgage-backed securities (guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae), 7% residential credit (non-agency loans and securitized products) and 4% mortgage servicing rights. It is funded mainly by repurchase agreements: $81.9 billion outstanding at December 31, 2025.

Is Annaly Capital Management's business Shariah compliant?

No. Annaly's stated business model is earning interest-rate spreads: its FY2025 Form 10-K (Item 1) says it uses 'capital coupled with borrowed funds to invest primarily in real estate related investments, earning the spread between the yield on our assets and the cost of our borrowings and hedging activities.' Interest income of $5,959,205 thousand in FY2025 is its top revenue line. Interest-based lending and earning interest spreads is the core business, not an incidental activity, so Annaly fails this screener's business-activity gate.

How much interest-bearing debt does Annaly have?

Annaly's total interest-bearing debt was $113,792,131 thousand ($113.8 billion) at December 31, 2025, per its FY2025 Form 10-K consolidated balance sheet: repurchase agreements $81,865,723 thousand, other secured financing $1,075,000 thousand, debt issued by securitization vehicles $28,918,753 thousand, and participations issued $1,932,655 thousand. $113.8 billion against a market capitalization of about $15.26 billion (Finnhub, October 2, 2026) is about 745.7% - far above the 33% ceiling.

How much interest income does Annaly earn?

Interest income is Annaly's core business line, not incidental income. Its FY2025 Form 10-K discloses interest income of $5,959,205 thousand as its own line on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, alongside interest expense of $4,823,705 thousand. Against net servicing income of $519,319 thousand and total other income of $589,630 thousand, interest income is about 84.3% of the combined income lines - far above the 5% non-compliant income ceiling. Interest-based earnings are the business itself (see the business-activity gate above).

What do third-party Shariah screeners say about Annaly?

ShariaPortfolio publishes an NLY page and rates it not Shariah-compliant because of its involvement in mortgage REITs and related activities. I could not find a dedicated NLY compliance page on Zoya (the ticker appears in its general directory without a rating) and no Musaffa NLY page from public sources - no ratings are invented here. Third-party screeners apply different assumptions and update on different schedules; always check the latest screening before investing.

Sources

Screened 2026-10-02 from published company figures and market data. Figures change; this page is educational, not financial advice and not a religious ruling.

Screened with our two-gate Shariah screening methodology (business-activity gate, then AAOIFI-style financial ratios).