Traders Buy High Volume of AGNC Investment Put Options (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 52,294 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 38% compared to the average daily volume of 37,759 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AGNC. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target 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 downgraded AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $10.50.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $10.08 on Friday. AGNC Investment has a 12-month low of $8.92 and a 12-month high of $10.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. On average, research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 15.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AGNC Investment's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 148.45%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5,488.0% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 317,736 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,085,000 after purchasing an additional 312,050 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 57,859 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 4,015 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 729,565 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $6,719,000 after buying an additional 33,700 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 304.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 15,800 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 11,895 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,662,954 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $80,392,000 after buying an additional 424,990 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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).