Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Announces $0.16 Quarterly Dividend

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.16 per share by the credit services provider on Friday, September 18th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th.

Navient has a payout ratio of 47.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Navient to earn $0.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.4%.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of NAVI opened at $9.24 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.65. The company has a quick ratio of 7.67, a current ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73. Navient has a 52 week low of $7.33 and a 52 week high of $13.87. The stock has a market cap of $866.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.48 and a beta of 1.18.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $150.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $142.87 million. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.68% and a negative net margin of 1.64%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Navient will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NAVI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $9.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $9.14.

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.