EP Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 12,113 AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 12,113 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $112,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 18,259 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $168,000 after buying an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 21,428 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 18,505 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 34.8% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 46,399 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 1.3%

AGNC stock opened at $9.08 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.36 and a beta of 1.30. AGNC Investment Corp. has a 52 week low of $7.85 and a 52 week high of $10.85. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $846.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $436.71 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 29.26% and a return on equity of 21.92%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a may 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a yield of 16.2%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is presently 360.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGNC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.75 to $10.25 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Donna Blank sold 17,218 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.67, for a total transaction of $149,280.06. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $783,291.15. The trade was a 16.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kenneth L. Pollack sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.03, for a total transaction of $158,025.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 447,841 shares in the company, valued at $4,044,004.23. The trade was a 3.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 139,384 shares of company stock worth $1,228,039. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

AGNC Investment 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).