COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Head to Head Survey

COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) and AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for COPT Defense Properties and AGNC Investment, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
COPT Defense Properties	0	3	4	0	2.57
AGNC Investment	0	4	7	0	2.64

COPT Defense Properties presently has a consensus target price of $30.86, suggesting a potential downside of 3.99%. AGNC Investment has a consensus target price of $10.33, suggesting a potential upside of 6.97%. Given AGNC Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AGNC Investment is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and AGNC Investment”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
COPT Defense Properties	$684.98 million	5.29	-$73.47 million	$1.22	26.34
AGNC Investment	$1.26 billion	6.80	$155.00 million	$1.44	6.71

AGNC Investment has higher revenue and earnings than COPT Defense Properties. AGNC Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than COPT Defense Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

COPT Defense Properties has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AGNC Investment has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

38.3% of AGNC Investment shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of COPT Defense Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of AGNC Investment shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares COPT Defense Properties and AGNC Investment’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
COPT Defense Properties	18.34%	8.99%	3.25%
AGNC Investment	42.19%	23.41%	2.14%

Dividends

COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. AGNC Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.9%. COPT Defense Properties pays out 96.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AGNC Investment pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

AGNC Investment beats COPT Defense Properties on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About COPT Defense Properties

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (USG) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company's tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements. As of December 31, 2023, the Company's Defense/IT Portfolio of 190 properties, including 24 owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, encompassed 21.7 million square feet and was 97.2% leased.

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). Its agency securities include agency residential mortgage-backed securities (Agency RMBS) and to-be-announced forward contracts (TBAs). Its Non-Agency Securities include credit risk transfer securities (CRT), non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (Non-Agency RMBS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).