AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Stock Price Up 0.6% – Here’s Why

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)’s share price traded up 0.6% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $10.35 and last traded at $10.31. 4,614,716 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 15,974,079 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.24.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Argus raised shares of AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.71 and a beta of 1.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $10.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

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

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a mar 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a yield of 14.1%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is 148.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total transaction of $50,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 75,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $766,781.90. This represents a 6.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $130,520.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,226 shares in the company, valued at $3,737,149.04. This trade represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AGNC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,316,872 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $767,348,000 after purchasing an additional 10,316,999 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter worth $87,269,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 821.0% in the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,464,956 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,332,000 after purchasing an additional 4,871,584 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter worth $39,840,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,614,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $134,645,000 after purchasing an additional 2,311,105 shares during the period. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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).