Morning Commentary: AGNC sells preferreds; Public Storage preps offering; JPMorgan up

By James McCandless

San Antonio, Feb. 28 – Thursday’s start in the preferred space saw a mostly positive trend as the Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index was up 0.02%.

AGNC Investment Corp. priced $225 million of $25-par series D fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferred stock with an initial dividend of 6.875%.

There is a $33.75 million greenshoe.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, RBC Capital Markets, LLC, UBS Securities LLC and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. are the bookrunners.

The preferreds are redeemable on or after April 15, 2024 at par. Prior to that, they are redeemable within 120 days after a change-of-control event.

On its first trading day, the preferreds, trading under the temporary symbol “AGNCO,” were spotted below par at $24.74 with about 806,000 shares trading.

In other primary activity, Public Storage plans to price a $100 million offering of $25-par series H cumulative preferred shares with a dividend in the 5.75% area.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Securities and Wells Fargo Securities LLC are the bookrunners.

The preferreds are redeemable after five years.

Meanwhile, in the secondary, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s 6% series EE non-cumulative preferred stock was higher, leading early activity.

The preferreds (NYSE: JPMPrC) were up 1 cent to $26.12 on volume of about 1 million shares.

Elsewhere in the finance space, Citigroup Inc.’s 7.125% series J fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative preferreds took the opposite track.

The preferreds (NYSE: CPrJ) fell 8 cents to $27.28 with about 51,000 shares trading.

Real estate investment trust Annaly Capital Management, Inc.’s 6.95% series F fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable preferred stock was moving better at the open of the session.

The preferreds (NYSE: NLYPrF) picked up 4 cents to $25.26 on volume of about 85,000 shares.

Aircraft leasing name Air Lease Corp.’s new 6.15% series A fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock pushed upward.

The preferreds, trading under the temporary symbol “ALSCP,” were up 5 cents to $25.25 with about 48,000 shares trading.

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