AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 50,470,000 shares, a growth of 10.7% from the October 15th total of 45,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,450,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in AGNC Investment by 279.0% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 239,493 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,505,000 after purchasing an additional 176,301 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 945.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,072,039 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $102,489,000 after buying an additional 969,475 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 112.7% in the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 107,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after buying an additional 57,089 shares during the period. Cannon Global Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,569,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,427,978 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,074,000 after buying an additional 870,856 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, Maxim Group lowered AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AGNC opened at $9.58 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $10.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.95. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $8.57 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85. The firm has a market cap of $8.48 billion, a PE ratio of 6.65 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a nov 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 14.9%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

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).