AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Price Target Lowered to $9.50 at Jones Trading

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) had its price target decreased by Jones Trading from $10.25 to $9.50 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Jones Trading currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on AGNC. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. StockNews.com upgraded AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Argus raised AGNC Investment to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.13.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AGNC opened at $8.45 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.69. 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 quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.74 billion, a PE ratio of 8.71 and a beta of 1.32.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 EPS 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 prior year, the firm earned $0.58 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a apr 25 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 17.7%. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 148.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $130,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 372,226 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,737,149.04. This represents a 3.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Frances Spark sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total transaction of $50,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 75,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $766,781.90. The trade was a 6.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 14.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 10,316,999 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter valued at about $87,269,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 821.0% during the 4th quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,464,956 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,332,000 after buying an additional 4,871,584 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,840,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 18.0% in the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 16,996,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,828,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,020 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).