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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 48,801 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 64% compared to the average daily volume of 29,714 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AGNC Investment news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.07, for a total transaction of $50,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 298,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,002,692.74. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 5.4% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 19,712 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 6.7% during the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 16,847 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 1,059 shares during the period. Paragon Capital Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.6% during the third quarter. Paragon Capital Management Ltd now owns 30,717 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares during the period. Highlander Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 8.1% during the first quarter. Highlander Capital Management LLC now owns 15,940 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.9% during the second quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 26,815 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of AGNC opened at $9.94 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.23 billion, a PE ratio of 10.92 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a fifty day moving average of $10.30 and a 200 day moving average of $9.93. AGNC Investment has a 52-week low of $6.81 and a 52-week high of $10.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 16.15%. The business had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 2.11 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a oct 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a yield of 14%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 158.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGNC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. StockNews.com downgraded AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. Maxim Group downgraded AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Compass Point increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.33.

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).