AGNC Investment Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 61,454 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 68% compared to the average volume of 36,588 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In other news, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $50,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 75,919 shares in the company, valued at $766,781.90. This represents a 6.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $130,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 372,226 shares in the company, valued at $3,737,149.04. This trade represents a 3.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 18,259 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $168,000 after buying an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 21,428 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $197,000 after buying an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 18,505 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 10.0% in the third quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,947 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 1,176 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 34.8% in the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AGNC shares. Argus upgraded shares of AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of AGNC opened at $10.35 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. AGNC Investment has a 1 year low of $8.92 and a 1 year high of $10.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.92. The firm has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67 and a beta of 1.50.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.05). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 29.26% and a return on equity of 21.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a mar 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a yield of 14.1%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 148.45%.

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).