AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $10.33.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AGNC. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Maxim Group lowered AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AGNC opened at $10.46 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $6.81 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $10.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.86. The firm has a market cap of $7.60 billion, a PE ratio of 11.49 and a beta of 1.47.

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

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 158.24%.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $365,000. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the second quarter valued at $165,000. Founders Financial Alliance LLC raised its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 33.4% during the second quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 117,124 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,117,000 after purchasing an additional 29,339 shares in the last quarter. PVG Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the second quarter worth about $368,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in AGNC Investment by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 330,181 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,150,000 after buying an additional 6,070 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

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).