AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.44.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AGNC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGNC. Weaver Consulting Group lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 45.0% during the 4th quarter. Weaver Consulting Group now owns 15,218 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $140,000 after buying an additional 4,721 shares during the last quarter. Innova Wealth Partners purchased a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter valued at $427,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter valued at $310,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth about $386,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 35.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 584,370 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,060,000 after purchasing an additional 154,029 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AGNC Investment Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of AGNC Investment stock opened at $9.29 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.92. The stock has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.47. AGNC Investment has a 1-year low of $8.92 and a 1-year high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. The company had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Analysts predict that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

AGNC Investment Company Profile

AGNC Investment Corp., formerly American Capital Agency Corp., is a real estate investment trust. The Company invests in agency residential mortgage-backed securities on a leveraged basis. Its investments consist of residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a government-sponsored enterprise, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), or by the United States Government agency, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) (collectively, GSEs).