Lafayette Investments Inc. Acquires New Stake in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Lafayette Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 12,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $119,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 36,203 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 2,012 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter worth $314,000. Waterfront Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 52,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $512,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares during the period. Guidance Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. now owns 83,277 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $804,000 after buying an additional 8,629 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 129,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,275,000 after buying an additional 13,837 shares during the period. 38.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on AGNC shares. Jonestrading started coverage on AGNC Investment in a report on Friday, March 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.75 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research note on Thursday. Barclays upped their price objective on AGNC Investment from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded AGNC Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AGNC Investment currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AGNC Investment news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total transaction of $98,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 287,282 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,727.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:AGNC traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $9.19. 2,787,935 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,626,037. The company has a fifty day moving average of $9.56 and a 200 day moving average of $9.25. AGNC Investment Corp. has a twelve month low of $6.81 and a twelve month high of $10.64. The company has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 917.92 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.26.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $640.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $570.42 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 28.02% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

AGNC Investment Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a apr 24 dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 15.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14,414.41%.

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).