AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) Shares Sold by Guidance Capital Inc.

Guidance Capital Inc. cut its stake in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 81,479 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,304 shares during the quarter. Guidance Capital Inc.’s holdings in AGNC Investment were worth $789,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 39,968 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 1,777 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in AGNC Investment in the second quarter valued at $163,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in AGNC Investment by 11.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 183,911 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after buying an additional 18,864 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 319.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 169,940 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,621,000 after buying an additional 129,458 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 3,661 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. 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 report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of AGNC Investment in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.50.

Insider Transactions at AGNC Investment

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.04, for a total transaction of $130,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 372,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,737,149.04. This represents a 3.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AGNC opened at $10.07 on Wednesday. AGNC Investment Corp. has a one year low of $8.92 and a one year high of $10.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.23.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.05). AGNC Investment had a net margin of 29.26% and a return on equity of 21.92%. On average, analysts predict that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a jan 25 dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a yield of 15.5%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is currently 148.46%.

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).