AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading 0.1% Higher – Still a Buy?

Shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) shot up 0.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $9.84 and last traded at $9.75. 20,240,409 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 44% from the average session volume of 14,095,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.74.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $8.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.78 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.97.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. The business had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a nov 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a yield of 14.9%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $151,113,000 after acquiring an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 314.8% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 3,842,814 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,196,000 after purchasing an additional 2,916,345 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in AGNC Investment during the 3rd quarter valued at $17,463,000. Boston Partners boosted its position in AGNC Investment by 522.4% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,437,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,229,000 after buying an additional 1,206,714 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in AGNC Investment by 115.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,912,694 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,023,275 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

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).