Virtu Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 97,479 AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 97,479 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $898,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter worth $2,781,000. HUB Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 391,329 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,604,000 after purchasing an additional 43,601 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 49.3% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 44,339 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $408,000 after purchasing an additional 14,638 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter worth about $114,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 781,749 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $7,200,000 after buying an additional 85,654 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 38.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AGNC. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of AGNC Investment to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $10.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total value of $130,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,226 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,737,149.04. The trade was a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $50,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 75,919 shares in the company, valued at $766,781.90. The trade was a 6.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company's stock.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AGNC traded down $0.24 on Friday, reaching $9.52. 34,346,531 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,676,686. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.92. AGNC Investment Corp. has a 52 week low of $8.92 and a 52 week high of $10.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market cap of $8.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.81 and a beta of 1.50.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.05). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 29.26% and a return on equity of 21.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a mar 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 14.1%. AGNC Investment's payout ratio is currently 148.45%.

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).