AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Shares Down 0.2% - Here's What Happened

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) shares dropped 0.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $9.05 and last traded at $9.06. Approximately 5,318,128 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 19,884,696 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.07.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AGNC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jones Trading dropped their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $9.50 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $9.96.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 1.1%

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.46 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.23 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.03. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 21.92% and a net margin of 29.26%. The business had revenue of $846.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $436.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a may 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 16.2%. AGNC Investment's dividend payout ratio is 360.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Peter J. Federico sold 48,333 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.70, for a total transaction of $420,497.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,691,421 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,715,362.70. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kenneth L. Pollack sold 17,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.03, for a total value of $158,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 447,841 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,044,004.23. The trade was a 3.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 139,384 shares of company stock valued at $1,228,039 over the last quarter. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AGNC Investment by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,316,872 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $767,348,000 after buying an additional 10,316,999 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth about $87,269,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 821.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,464,956 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $50,332,000 after purchasing an additional 4,871,584 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth about $39,840,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the first quarter worth about $30,546,000. Institutional investors 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).