AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $10.44.

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of 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 cut AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in AGNC Investment by 2.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $70,796,000 after purchasing an additional 162,152 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,552,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $16,242,000 after acquiring an additional 71,330 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 valued at $128,730,000 after acquiring an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 279.0% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 239,493 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,505,000 after purchasing an additional 176,301 shares during the period. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $9.21 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a PE ratio of 6.40 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.93. AGNC Investment has a 52 week low of $8.92 and a 52 week high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a dec 24 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 15.1%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

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).