AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Shares Up 0.5% – Here’s Why

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)’s stock price rose 0.5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $10.15 and last traded at $10.13. Approximately 3,913,571 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 19,068,953 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.07.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Argus upgraded AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 1.48.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.05). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 21.92% and a net margin of 29.26%. As a group, analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a jan 25 dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a yield of 15.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 148.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AGNC Investment news, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $50,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 75,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,781.90. The trade was a 6.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $130,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 372,226 shares in the company, valued at $3,737,149.04. This represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $70,796,000 after acquiring an additional 162,152 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $151,113,000 after purchasing an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,552,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,242,000 after buying an additional 71,330 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $128,730,000 after buying an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 195.2% during the fourth quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 53,834 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $496,000 after buying an additional 35,598 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

About AGNC Investment

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).