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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 48,801 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 64% compared to the typical volume of 29,714 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AGNC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Maxim Group downgraded AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $10.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $10.31 and a 200-day moving average of $9.92. AGNC Investment has a one year low of $6.81 and a one year high of $10.85. The company has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a PE ratio of 11.41 and a beta of 1.47. 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 (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 52.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 2.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a oct 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a yield of 14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 158.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of AGNC Investment 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 directly owns 298,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,002,692.74. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 11,562 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 3,207 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.4% in the third 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 buying an additional 189,444 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in AGNC Investment in the third quarter valued at approximately $111,000. AA Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AGNC Investment during the 3rd quarter valued at $256,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,222,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,788,000 after acquiring an additional 38,690 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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).