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

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 60,258 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 44% compared to the typical volume of 41,726 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jones Trading dropped their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $9.50 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of AGNC Investment from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $9.96.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 18,259 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 21,428 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 222,310 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,186 shares during the period. CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 34.8% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229 shares during the period. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 13,986 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 1,237 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company's stock.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AGNC traded down $0.23 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $8.96. 19,739,285 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,235,740. The stock has a market cap of $9.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. AGNC Investment has a twelve month low of $7.85 and a twelve month high of $10.85. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.53.

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

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

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