AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Short Interest Up 22.9% in December

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 51,530,000 shares, a growth of 22.9% from the December 15th total of 41,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 18,600,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in AGNC Investment in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 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 valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 315.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 2,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its holdings in AGNC Investment by 75.6% during 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 institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGNC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of AGNC opened at $9.55 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a PE ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 1.47. AGNC Investment has a 12-month low of $8.92 and a 12-month high of $10.85. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.90.

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

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 15.5%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is 100.00%.

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).