StockNews.com Lowers AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on AGNC. Maxim Group downgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and lifted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Compass Point lifted their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $10.33.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

NASDAQ AGNC opened at $10.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.87 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s fifty day moving average is $10.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.90. AGNC Investment has a 52-week low of $6.81 and a 52-week high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $695.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.29 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 16.15%. AGNC Investment’s revenue was up 52.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 2.11 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a oct 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is 389.20%.

Insider Transactions at AGNC Investment

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of AGNC Investment stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.07, for a total transaction of $50,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 298,182 shares in the company, valued at $3,002,692.74. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $717,000. Norden Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 985.9% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 185,562 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,837,000 after buying an additional 168,473 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 53.0% in the first quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 23,213 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 8,039 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 339.7% in the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 133,230 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,323,000 after buying an additional 102,933 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,735,466 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $650,781,000 after buying an additional 2,368,658 shares during the period. 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).