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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 43,865 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 27% compared to the typical daily volume of 34,533 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 2.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,237,964 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $86,169,000 after purchasing an additional 189,444 shares during the last quarter. Equity Investment Corp grew its position in AGNC Investment by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $76,088,000 after purchasing an additional 149,775 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $70,796,000 after buying an additional 162,152 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company's stock.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

AGNC stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, reaching $9.12. The company had a trading volume of 22,275,411 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,389,100. 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 twelve month low of $8.92 and a twelve month high of $10.85. The company has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.33 and a beta of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.91.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. The firm had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 15.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AGNC Investment's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on AGNC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of 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 research 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $10.44.

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).