AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading Down 0.1% – Time to Sell?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) shares fell 0.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $9.57 and last traded at $9.66. 4,224,706 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 14,041,874 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.67.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGNC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AGNC Investment presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.97. The company has a market cap of $8.58 billion, a PE ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its 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 company had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $219.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a nov 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 14.9%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AGNC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,735,466 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $650,781,000 after acquiring an additional 2,368,658 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 200.5% in the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $151,113,000 after purchasing an additional 9,639,675 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AGNC Investment by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $128,730,000 after purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 2.4% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,237,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,169,000 after purchasing an additional 189,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $76,088,000 after buying an additional 149,775 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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).