Lafayette Investments Inc. Invests $119,000 in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Lafayette Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 12,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $119,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $38,593,000. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 103.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 185,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,753,000 after buying an additional 94,332 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,752,044 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,539,000 after buying an additional 78,253 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 48.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 451,460 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,262,000 after buying an additional 146,406 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AGNC Investment in the 3rd quarter worth $3,655,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bernice Bell sold 10,000 shares of AGNC Investment 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 287,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,727.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AGNC shares. Barclays increased their target price on AGNC Investment from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Jonestrading began coverage on AGNC Investment in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.75 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price 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. 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AGNC Investment currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.93.

AGNC Investment Stock Performance

AGNC stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $9.19. The company had a trading volume of 2,787,935 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,626,037. The company has a quick ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $9.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.25. AGNC Investment Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $6.81 and a fifty-two week high of $10.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a PE ratio of 917.92 and a beta of 1.45.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $640.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $570.42 million. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 28.02% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 2.16 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

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

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).