AGNC Investment Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 41,485 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 59% compared to the typical volume of 26,049 put options.

AGNC Investment Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AGNC traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $10.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,949,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,583,605. The stock has a market cap of $7.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.59 and a beta of 1.47. AGNC Investment has a 12 month low of $6.81 and a 12 month high of $10.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $695.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.29 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 16.15%. AGNC Investment’s revenue for the quarter was up 52.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 158.24%.

Insider Transactions at AGNC Investment

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 298,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,002,692.74. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter worth $69,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in AGNC Investment by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,366,808 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $621,628,000 after acquiring an additional 6,019,268 shares during the last quarter. GRS Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $32,509,000. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 522.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,437,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,229,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,714 shares during the period. Finally, Equity Investment Corp grew its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 6,870,571 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,019,000 after buying an additional 957,139 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGNC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.13.

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).