AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading Up 0.4% - Time to Buy?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 0.4% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $8.99 and last traded at $9.00. 8,111,791 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average session volume of 19,993,846 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.96.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Jones Trading decreased their target price 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. Finally, Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $9.96.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.43 and a beta of 1.30. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $9.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.53. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.03. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 21.92% and a net margin of 29.26%. The company had revenue of $846.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $436.71 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.58 EPS. On average, analysts expect that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other AGNC Investment news, Director Donna Blank sold 17,218 shares of AGNC Investment stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.67, for a total value of $149,280.06. Following the transaction, the director now owns 90,345 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $783,291.15. The trade was a 16.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Bernice Bell sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.88, for a total transaction of $71,040.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 374,019 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,321,288.72. This represents a 2.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 139,384 shares of company stock valued at $1,228,039. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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