Virtu Financial LLC Makes New $898,000 Investment in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 97,479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $898,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Life Planners acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in AGNC Investment during the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Spire Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 94.5% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 4,059 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,972 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 775.6% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 581,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 515,148 shares during the period. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in AGNC Investment by 413.8% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,853 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 7,130 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $50,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 75,919 shares in the company, valued at $766,781.90. This represents a 6.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 stock was 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 represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGNC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Argus upgraded shares of AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

AGNC Investment stock opened at $10.13 on Tuesday. AGNC Investment Corp. has a 12 month low of $8.92 and a 12 month high of $10.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 10.44 and a beta of 1.50. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.93.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 29.26% and a return on equity of 21.92%. Equities analysts predict that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

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

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).