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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 50,171 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 99% compared to the average volume of 25,150 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AGNC shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Janney Montgomery Scott started coverage on AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.50 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Compass Point upped their price target 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 assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.13.

Insider Transactions at AGNC Investment

In related news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $3,072,574.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter valued at $69,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $621,628,000 after acquiring an additional 6,019,268 shares during the last quarter. GRS Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth about $32,509,000. Boston Partners increased its position 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 worth $14,229,000 after purchasing an additional 1,206,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp raised its stake in AGNC Investment by 16.2% in the first quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 6,870,571 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $68,019,000 after purchasing an additional 957,139 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

Shares of AGNC Investment stock traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $10.55. The company had a trading volume of 20,270,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,602,753. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. AGNC Investment has a one year low of $6.81 and a one year high of $10.57. The firm has a market cap of $7.67 billion, a PE ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.79.

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

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a aug 24 dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a yield of 14.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.24%.

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).