A Look At Whitebox Advisors Top Equity Holdings As It Prepares To Close Down Its Mutual Fund Unit

 #3 American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC)

– Shares Owned by Whitebox Advisors (as of September 30): 792,500

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $114.9 Million

Though the stock of  American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) fell by over 20% during 2015, due to the company’s $0.20 monthly dividend, the stock currently sports a yield of 14%. This hugely attractive dividend yield can be one of the reasons why Whitebox Advisors increased its stake in the REIT by 7% during the third quarter and the ownership of American Capital Agency among the funds tracked by Insider Monkey increased by seven to 26 during the same period.

In the last few quarters, the shares of REITs have fallen considerably amid the fears of interest rate hike, and now that the Fed has started raising rates, some investors fear that REIT stocks might lose even more ground. However, experts point out that those fears are unfounded since in the 16 periods in the last 20 years when interest rates were hiked considerably, equity REITs generated positive returns in 12.

On December 16, analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Overweight’ and also reduced their price target on it to $18 from $21. Billionaire George Soros‘ Soros Fund Management initiated a stake in American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) by acquiring some 1.12 million shares.