Contrasting COPT Defense Properties (NYSE:CDP) & AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC)

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

Profitability

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

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for AGNC Investment and COPT Defense Properties, as reported by MarketBeat.

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

AGNC Investment presently has a consensus price target of $10.33, indicating a potential upside of 9.12%. COPT Defense Properties has a consensus price target of $30.86, indicating a potential downside of 2.81%. Given AGNC Investment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AGNC Investment is more favorable than COPT Defense Properties.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AGNC Investment	$2.04 billion	4.11	$155.00 million	$1.44	6.58
COPT Defense Properties	$684.98 million	5.22	-$73.47 million	$1.22	26.02

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.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

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

Volatility and Risk

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

Dividends

AGNC Investment pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.2%. COPT Defense Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. 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. 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.

Summary

AGNC Investment beats COPT Defense Properties on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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).

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.