Analysts Set Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Price Target at $9.14

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $9.1429.

Several research firms recently weighed in on NAVI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Navient from $9.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, August 7th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Navient in the 2nd quarter worth about $110,235,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in Navient by 23.2% during the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,848,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $40,167,000 after acquiring an additional 536,933 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Navient by 20.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,484,742 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,302,000 after acquiring an additional 418,161 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Navient by 41.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,939,380 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $16,504,000 after acquiring an additional 568,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Navient by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,543,796 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,069,000 after acquiring an additional 423,381 shares during the last quarter. 97.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of Navient stock opened at $9.42 on Friday. Navient has a 12 month low of $7.33 and a 12 month high of $13.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $883.41 million, a P/E ratio of -18.84 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 10.53, a quick ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.57.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.09. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.64% and a positive return on equity of 4.68%. The company had revenue of $150.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.87 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Navient will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.8%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -128.00%.

About Navient

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ: NAVI) is a U.S.-based provider of education finance and business processing solutions. The company’s activities include originating and servicing private education loans, providing loan asset management services, and supporting government and commercial clients with administrative and customer-service functions.

Navient traces its history to the creation of the Student Loan Marketing Association, commonly known as Sallie Mae, in 1972. In 2014, Sallie Mae separated its consumer banking and education-finance operations from its government-guaranteed student loan servicing business.