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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 34,596 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 31% compared to the typical daily volume of 26,329 put options.

Insider Transactions at AGNC Investment

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.32, for a total value of $32,620.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 309,973 shares in the company, valued at $2,888,948.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.35, for a total value of $46,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 75,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $706,345.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Bernice Bell sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.32, for a total value of $32,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 309,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,888,948.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,900 shares of company stock worth $149,030. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGNC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter worth about $69,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in AGNC Investment by 10.5% in 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 during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the fourth quarter worth about $38,593,000. GRS Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter worth about $32,509,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 150.5% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,175,807 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,775,000 after buying an additional 3,109,966 shares during the period. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com raised AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Jonestrading cut their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, June 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.50 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $9.88.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $9.85 on Tuesday. AGNC Investment has a twelve month low of $6.81 and a twelve month high of $10.64. The firm has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a PE ratio of 10.82 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a current ratio of 0.28. The business has a fifty day moving average of $9.57 and a 200-day moving average of $9.62.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.02. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 27.14% and a net margin of 32.12%. The company had revenue of $642.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $568.38 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.70 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that AGNC Investment will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a jun 24 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 27th. This represents a yield of 14.8%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 158.24%.

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).