AGNC Investment Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors acquired 47,333 call options on the company. This is an increase of 47% compared to the average volume of 32,166 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Peter J. Federico sold 45,798 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.27, for a total value of $470,345.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,557,401 shares in the company, valued at $15,994,508.27. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 46,368,867 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the 2nd quarter valued at $109,814,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,995,789 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $229,990,000 after acquiring an additional 2,461,255 shares during the last quarter. Equity Investment Corp raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 27.0% during the second quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 9,390,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,298,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995,369 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,693,449 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $155,383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906,785 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jones Trading reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.32.

AGNC Investment Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of AGNC stock traded up $0.14 on Friday, hitting $10.71. The stock had a trading volume of 10,009,478 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,731,139. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.98 and a beta of 1.36. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $10.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.83. AGNC Investment has a 1 year low of $7.85 and a 1 year high of $10.72.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $836.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $466.39 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 18.84% and a net margin of 24.40%.During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 13.5%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 214.93%.

About AGNC Investment

AGNC Investment Corp. is a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that primarily acquires and manages a portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by U.S. government-sponsored enterprises such as Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The company employs a leveraged total return strategy, borrowing against its securities to enhance income potential while using interest rate hedges to manage risk. AGNC’s investment objective is to generate attractive monthly dividends and long-term capital appreciation for its shareholders.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, AGNC focuses exclusively on U.S.