AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading 1.1% Higher – Should You Buy?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)’s stock price traded up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $9.78 and last traded at $9.75. 4,005,146 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 14,083,369 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.64.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $8.64 billion, a PE ratio of 6.78 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50 day moving average of $9.98 and a 200 day moving average of $9.97. 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 (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a nov 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 14.9%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGNC. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $151,113,000 after acquiring an additional 9,639,675 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in AGNC Investment by 279.0% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 239,493 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,505,000 after purchasing an additional 176,301 shares during the last quarter. Equity Investment Corp increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,088,000 after purchasing an additional 149,775 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 945.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,072,039 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $102,489,000 after buying an additional 969,475 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 112.7% during the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 107,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after acquiring an additional 57,089 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is 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).