AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading 1.1% Higher Following Dividend Announcement

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)’s stock price traded up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Monday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $10.47 and last traded at $10.46. 6,255,856 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 12,512,979 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.35.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.51%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 158.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.50 price objective on the stock. Compass Point raised their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the stock 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 research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.13.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.75 billion, a PE ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $10.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.81.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $643.29 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 26.21%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 52.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In other AGNC Investment news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of AGNC Investment stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.97, for a total transaction of $49,850.00. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $69,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,366,808 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,628,000 after purchasing an additional 6,019,268 shares in the last quarter. GRS Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $32,509,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 522.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 16.2% during the first quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 6,870,571 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $68,019,000 after purchasing an additional 957,139 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).