Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of AGNC Investment Call Options (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 119,862 call options on the stock. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately322% compared to the typical daily volume of 28,419 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGNC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Jones Trading reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $9.50 price target on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $9.58.

Insider Activity at AGNC Investment

In related news, Director Paul E. Mullings sold 11,000 shares of AGNC Investment stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.61, for a total value of $105,710.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 128,511 shares in the company, valued at $1,234,990.71. The trade was a 7.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director John D. Fisk sold 20,278 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.65, for a total transaction of $195,682.70. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 112,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,087,410.25. This trade represents a 15.25% 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGNC. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 241,567.4% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 46,388,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $446,651,000 after buying an additional 46,368,867 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 2nd quarter valued at about $109,814,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 1st quarter worth about $30,546,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position 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 worth $162,828,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 worth $821,765,000 after acquiring an additional 2,462,337 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Trading Down 0.1%

AGNC Investment stock opened at $9.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $9.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.42. AGNC Investment has a 52 week low of $7.85 and a 52 week high of $10.85. The stock has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.79 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) 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). The firm had revenue of $830.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $447.37 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 11.50% and a return on equity of 19.32%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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).