AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading 1.9% Higher – Should You Buy?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) shares traded up 1.9% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $9.45 and last traded at $9.45. 4,833,258 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 14,111,151 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the topic of several recent research reports. 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 report on Monday, December 9th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, 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. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, AGNC Investment has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market cap of $8.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.56 and a beta of 1.47.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 35.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 584,370 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,060,000 after purchasing an additional 154,029 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 3rd quarter valued at about $142,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.3% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 96,081 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,005,000 after buying an additional 3,075 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 valued at $128,730,000 after buying an additional 242,640 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,552,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,242,000 after acquiring an additional 71,330 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

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).