AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Short Interest Down 11.5% in December

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 41,930,000 shares, a decline of 11.5% from the November 30th total of 47,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 18,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of AGNC opened at $9.25 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s 50-day moving average is $9.60 and its 200-day moving average is $9.95. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $8.92 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. The company had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.50 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a dec 24 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 15.1%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $151,113,000 after buying an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AGNC Investment by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $128,730,000 after purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,237,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,169,000 after purchasing an additional 189,444 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.1% in the third quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,088,000 after buying an additional 149,775 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 2.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $70,796,000 after acquiring an additional 162,152 shares during the period. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on AGNC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.44.

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).