AGNC Investment Corp. Cuts Its Dividend But Remains Optimistic on the Future

The brunt of the COVID-19 financial crisis has largely been borne by mortgage real estate investment trusts (REITs), which use borrowed money and purchase a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities. No stock has managed to escape the carnage. On April 8, AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: AGNC) cut its dividend and gave an update on the portfolio.

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AGNC cut its monthly dividend from $0.16 a share to $0.12 and lowered its book value estimate from $17.66 a share to $13.60 as of the end of March. Since almost all of AGNC's portfolio is in agency paper (that is, guaranteed by the government), this is somewhat surprising. AGNC attributed this to a decline in the value of some of its specified pools, which it believes will reverse over time.

Source Fool.com