AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Stock Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $10.89.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $11.50 target price (up from $11.00) on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Friday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Compass Point lowered AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.50 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, July 17th.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $8.72 on Wednesday. AGNC Investment has a one year low of $8.41 and a one year high of $12.19. The company has a market cap of $10.34 billion, a PE ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 1.36. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.41.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $305.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 57.94% and a return on equity of 17.96%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.17) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that AGNC Investment will post 1.60 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 16.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 30th. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 75.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AGNC Investment news, EVP Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.00, for a total transaction of $55,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 406,947 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,476,417. This represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in AGNC Investment during the 2nd quarter valued at about $704,076,000. Equity Investment Corp bought a new stake in AGNC Investment during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $106,123,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the second quarter worth approximately $77,501,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 17.2% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,190,499 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $56,576,000 after purchasing an additional 763,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the second quarter worth approximately $40,182,000. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AGNC Investment Company Profile

AGNC Investment Corp. is an internally managed real estate investment trust that invests primarily in agency residential mortgage-backed securities. Its portfolio generally includes mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations issued or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae. Because these securities carry government or government-sponsored enterprise backing, the company’s investment strategy focuses on interest-rate and prepayment risks rather than traditional residential credit risk.

AGNC finances its investments largely through repurchase agreements and uses interest-rate swaps, swaptions, and other hedging instruments to manage exposure to changing interest rates and funding costs.