Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The credit services provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03, FiscalAI reports. The firm had revenue of $152.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $141.47 million. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.39% and a negative net margin of 1.94%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.25 EPS.

Navient Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Navient stock traded down $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $9.24. 180,639 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,028,195. The firm has a market cap of $868.00 million, a P/E ratio of -14.66 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 7.67, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49. Navient has a 52-week low of $7.80 and a 52-week high of $16.07. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.76.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.9%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -78.05%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Navient

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Navient by 74.0% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 31,692 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 13,482 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Navient by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 12,604 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $164,000 after buying an additional 1,706 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Navient by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 462,974 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $6,019,000 after purchasing an additional 18,064 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Navient during the fourth quarter worth about $188,000. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Navient by 67.7% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 513,449 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $6,675,000 after purchasing an additional 207,291 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on NAVI. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Friday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Barclays increased their target price on Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Navient from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.29.

About Navient

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ: NAVI) is a specialized provider of asset management and business processing solutions, with a primary focus on student loan servicing. Established in 2014 through the separation from Sallie Mae, Navient assumed responsibility for servicing federal and private education loans, positioning itself as one of the largest servicers of higher education debt in the United States.

The company’s core activities center on federal student loan servicing under contracts with the U.S.