Sowell Financial Services LLC Has $771,000 Stake in AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

Sowell Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) by 47.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 80,478 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 25,850 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC’s holdings in AGNC Investment were worth $771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in AGNC Investment by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,316,872 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $767,348,000 after buying an additional 10,316,999 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $87,269,000. PL Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in AGNC Investment by 821.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,464,956 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,332,000 after buying an additional 4,871,584 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in AGNC Investment during the fourth quarter worth $39,840,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in AGNC Investment by 18.0% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 16,996,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $162,828,000 after buying an additional 2,589,020 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of AGNC Investment from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of AGNC Investment in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $9.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Finally, Jones Trading lowered their price target on AGNC Investment from $10.25 to $9.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AGNC Investment has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $9.75.

AGNC Investment Stock Up 0.8%

AGNC stock opened at $9.26 on Thursday. AGNC Investment Corp. has a twelve month low of $7.85 and a twelve month high of $10.85. The company has a market cap of $9.45 billion, a PE ratio of 23.15 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.03. AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 20.36% and a net margin of 14.91%. The business had revenue of $846.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $436.71 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.58 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a jun 25 dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 10th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a yield of 15.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. AGNC Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 360.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AGNC Investment news, Director Donna Blank sold 17,218 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.67, for a total transaction of $149,280.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 90,345 shares in the company, valued at $783,291.15. This trade represents a 16.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kenneth L. Pollack sold 17,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.03, for a total transaction of $158,025.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 447,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,044,004.23. This represents a 3.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 139,384 shares of company stock valued at $1,228,039 over the last three months. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).