AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of AGNC Investment from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $11.50 price target (up from $11.00) on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Compass Point cut AGNC Investment from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.50 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on AGNC Investment from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.89.

AGNC Investment Price Performance

Shares of AGNC stock opened at $8.72 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.01 and its 200 day moving average is $10.41. AGNC Investment has a 1-year low of $8.41 and a 1-year high of $12.19. The company has a market cap of $10.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 1.36.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AGNC Investment news, EVP Bernice Bell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president owned 406,947 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,476,417. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the second quarter valued at about $704,076,000. Equity Investment Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 2nd quarter worth $106,123,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the second quarter valued at about $77,501,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in AGNC Investment during the second quarter worth about $40,182,000. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the second quarter valued at about $35,421,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

About AGNC Investment

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.