AGNC Investment Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AGNC)

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGNC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of AGNC stock traded down $0.15 on Monday, hitting $8.99. The stock had a trading volume of 12,630,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,901,949. The company has a market cap of $7.96 billion, a PE ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.91. 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 has a one year low of $8.92 and a one year high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 company earned $0.65 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued 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 (DPR) is currently 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).