Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 41,830 put options on the company. This is an increase of 18% compared to the typical volume of 35,425 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Jones Trading restated a "buy" rating and issued a $9.50 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AGNC Investment currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $9.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Bernice Bell sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.88, for a total value of $71,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 374,019 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,321,288.72. This represents a 2.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Peter J. Federico sold 48,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.88, for a total value of $429,197.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,643,088 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,590,621.44. This trade represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 139,384 shares of company stock valued at $1,228,039. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 85,779,209 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $821,765,000 after purchasing an additional 2,462,337 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 241,567.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 46,388,062 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $446,651,000 after purchasing an additional 46,368,867 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in AGNC Investment by 18.0% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 16,996,741 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $162,828,000 after buying an additional 2,589,020 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in AGNC Investment by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,614,721 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $134,645,000 after buying an additional 2,311,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth about $87,269,000. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AGNC traded up $0.22 on Wednesday, reaching $9.59. 30,010,215 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,363,318. The company's 50 day moving average is $9.20 and its 200-day moving average is $9.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.79 billion, a PE ratio of 28.21 and a beta of 1.28. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $7.85 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.28 and a quick ratio of 0.28.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 11.50% and a return on equity of 19.63%. The business had revenue of $830.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $447.37 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a jul 25 dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a yield of 15.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. AGNC Investment's payout ratio is 423.53%.

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).