AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 51,650,000 shares, an increase of 6.0% from the March 15th total of 48,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,470,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In other AGNC Investment news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total value of $98,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 287,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,727.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,366,808 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $621,628,000 after purchasing an additional 6,019,268 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 1.6% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 33,303,058 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $335,695,000 after buying an additional 523,955 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 2.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,338,384 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $157,098,000 after buying an additional 402,771 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 3.5% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,438,287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $85,058,000 after buying an additional 287,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in AGNC Investment by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,682,998 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $75,370,000 after buying an additional 395,796 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AGNC. Compass Point began coverage on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.25 price objective for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Jonestrading initiated coverage on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Friday, March 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.75 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.93.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

Shares of AGNC opened at $9.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.26. AGNC Investment has a twelve month low of $6.81 and a twelve month high of $10.64. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $9.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.25. The firm has a market cap of $6.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 904.00 and a beta of 1.45.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.11. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 28.02%. The company had revenue of $640.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $570.42 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 2.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a apr 24 dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 15.4%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14,400.00%.

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).