Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC)

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 43,865 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 27% compared to the typical volume of 34,533 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AGNC. StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.44.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in AGNC Investment in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in AGNC Investment in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in AGNC Investment by 52.2% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,661 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in AGNC Investment by 315.9% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 2,966 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of AGNC stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $8.99. The company had a trading volume of 12,630,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,901,949. AGNC Investment has a 12-month low of $8.92 and a 12-month high of $10.85. 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 company has a market capitalization of $7.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $9.50 and a 200-day moving average of $9.91.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a yield of 15.5%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

About AGNC Investment

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).