Veritable L.P. Takes Position in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Veritable L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 10,278 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $168,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in SLM by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,551,727 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $427,418,000 after acquiring an additional 177,312 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in SLM by 25.9% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,676,477 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $107,502,000 after acquiring an additional 1,784,576 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in SLM by 18.8% during the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 7,136,438 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $88,420,000 after acquiring an additional 1,129,100 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in SLM by 17.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,605,432 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $81,839,000 after acquiring an additional 988,172 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in SLM by 53.0% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,530,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $83,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,570,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SLM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reduced their price objective on SLM from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. Stephens boosted their price objective on SLM from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on SLM from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on SLM from $19.50 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on SLM from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.64.

SLM Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ SLM opened at $14.42 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $13.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.99. SLM Co. has a 52-week low of $10.81 and a 52-week high of $17.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.68 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.56.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The credit services provider reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.22). SLM had a net margin of 12.76% and a return on equity of 21.83%. The firm had revenue of $409.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $381.34 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that SLM Co. will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 1st. SLM’s payout ratio is currently 32.59%.

About SLM

SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It also offers retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market deposit accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts.