AGNC Investment Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 41,830 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 18% compared to the typical daily volume of 35,425 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AGNC shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $9.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at AGNC Investment

In other 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 owned 90,345 shares of the company's stock, valued at $783,291.15. The trade was a 16.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Bernice Bell sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 374,019 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,321,288.72. This represents a 2.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 241,567.4% during the 2nd 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. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,316,999 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter valued at about $87,269,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,840,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,546,000. 38.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

Shares of AGNC Investment stock traded up $0.06 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $9.29. 18,612,689 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,268,533. AGNC Investment has a 12-month low of $7.85 and a 12-month high of $10.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.21 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.43. 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 issued its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $830.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $447.37 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 20.36% and a net margin of 14.91%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a jul 25 dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 31st. This represents a yield of 15.2%. AGNC Investment's payout ratio is 360.00%.

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).

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