AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading Up 1.2%

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)’s share price rose 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $10.24 and last traded at $10.22. Approximately 2,390,615 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 12,419,679 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.10.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on AGNC shares. StockNews.com cut AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Maxim Group cut AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Compass Point increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.13.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 1.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $9.97 and a 200 day moving average of $9.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $695.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.29 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 26.78%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 52.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 2.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a aug 24 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 14.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.97, for a total transaction of $49,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 308,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,072,574.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter worth $69,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,366,808 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,628,000 after acquiring an additional 6,019,268 shares during the period. GRS Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter worth $32,509,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 150.5% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,175,807 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,775,000 after acquiring an additional 3,109,966 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 522.4% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,437,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,229,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206,714 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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).