AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Short Interest Up 12.1% in November

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 47,380,000 shares, a growth of 12.1% from the November 15th total of 42,250,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 18,280,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGNC Investment

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 200.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 9,639,675 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 worth $128,730,000 after purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in AGNC Investment by 2.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 189,444 shares during the last quarter. Equity Investment Corp raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.1% in the third quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 7,274,167 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,088,000 after buying an additional 149,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $70,796,000 after buying an additional 162,152 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on AGNC. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of AGNC opened at $9.58 on Monday. AGNC Investment has a 12-month low of $8.92 and a 12-month high of $10.85. The firm has a market cap of $8.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.65 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 42.19% and a return on equity of 23.41%. The firm had revenue of $756.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AGNC Investment will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a dec 24 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a yield of 15.1%. 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).