AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Short Interest Up 10.7% in October

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 50,470,000 shares, an increase of 10.7% from the October 15th total of 45,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGNC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $10.25 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Maxim Group cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Compass Point lifted their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,735,466 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $650,781,000 after purchasing an additional 2,368,658 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 14,446,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $151,113,000 after acquiring an additional 9,639,675 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $128,730,000 after acquiring an additional 242,640 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,237,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,169,000 after acquiring an additional 189,444 shares during the period. Finally, Equity Investment Corp grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $76,088,000 after acquiring an additional 149,775 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AGNC opened at $9.58 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.96. 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 $8.48 billion, a PE ratio of 6.65 and a beta of 1.47. AGNC Investment has a fifty-two week low of $8.57 and a fifty-two week high of $10.85.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. The business had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a nov 24 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 14.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

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).