Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of AGNC Investment Call Options (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 50,171 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 99% compared to the average volume of 25,150 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In related news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of AGNC Investment stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.97, for a total value of $49,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 308,182 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,072,574.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AGNC. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 52.2% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,661 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the first quarter worth $38,000. Verity & Verity LLC bought a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the first quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Quarry LP raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 75.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 2,275 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, September 8th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Compass Point boosted their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.13.

AGNC Investment Trading Up 1.9 %

AGNC stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $10.55. The company had a trading volume of 20,270,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,602,753. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. AGNC Investment has a 52 week low of $6.81 and a 52 week high of $10.57. The business has a 50 day moving average of $10.14 and a 200 day moving average of $9.79. The company has a market cap of $7.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 1.47.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.01). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 16.15%. The firm had revenue of $695.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.29 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 52.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 2.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a aug 24 dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a yield of 14.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.24%.

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).