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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 43,865 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 27% compared to the average volume of 34,533 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 1.6% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 161,244 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,538,000 after acquiring an additional 2,573 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Choreo LLC grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 58.1% during the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 40,668 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 14,942 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the second quarter valued at about $124,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in AGNC Investment by 32.2% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 242,129 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,310,000 after purchasing an additional 59,042 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

AGNC Investment Trading Down 0.2 %

AGNC stock opened at $9.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 6.33 and a beta of 1.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $9.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $8.92 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 15.5%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

AGNC Investment Company Profile

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).