AGNC Investment Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders bought 52,084 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 28% compared to the typical daily volume of 40,598 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on AGNC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 restated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:AGNC traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $8.19. 42,129,013 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,139,851. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $7.85 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.45 and a beta of 1.32.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share 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, research analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a apr 25 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a yield of 17.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 148.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,737,149.04. This trade represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director now owns 75,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,781.90. This trade represents a 6.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its stake in AGNC Investment by 4.8% during 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 position in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $128,730,000 after acquiring an additional 242,640 shares in the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 195.2% in the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 53,834 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 35,598 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,349,657 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $67,690,000 after purchasing an additional 581,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

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).