StockNews.com Upgrades AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) to “Hold”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Tuesday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on AGNC. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Argus upgraded AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AGNC Investment has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of AGNC opened at $10.42 on Tuesday. AGNC Investment has a 1 year low of $8.92 and a 1 year high of $10.85. 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 1.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $9.80 and a 200-day moving average of $9.92.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.05). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 21.92% and a net margin of 29.26%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a feb 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a yield of 13.8%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 148.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In other AGNC Investment news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total value of $130,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 372,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,737,149.04. This trade represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $50,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 75,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $766,781.90. This trade represents a 6.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,316,872 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $767,348,000 after buying an additional 10,316,999 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,614,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $134,645,000 after buying an additional 2,311,105 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $87,269,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,662,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $80,392,000 after buying an additional 424,990 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

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).