AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading 0.1% Higher – Still a Buy?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) traded up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $9.43 and last traded at $9.39. 3,542,889 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 14,194,306 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.48 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.94.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. Research analysts forecast that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dec 24 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a yield of 15.1%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $70,796,000 after buying an additional 162,152 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted 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 worth $151,113,000 after purchasing an additional 9,639,675 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.8% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,552,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,242,000 after purchasing an additional 71,330 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $128,730,000 after purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 279.0% in the third 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 period. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).