Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

NAVI has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, September 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Navient from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Navient from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Navient from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $8.00.

Navient Trading Down 12.2%

NAVI opened at $5.92 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.37, a current ratio of 7.50 and a quick ratio of 10.53. The company has a market cap of $555.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.41 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.79. Navient has a fifty-two week low of $5.91 and a fifty-two week high of $13.48.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The credit services provider reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $308.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.92 million. Navient had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 3.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.84) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Navient will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Navient

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Navient in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $110,235,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Navient during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $20,711,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Navient during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,989,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Navient by 574.2% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 834,682 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,571,000 after buying an additional 710,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Navient by 41.5% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,939,380 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $16,504,000 after buying an additional 568,590 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Company Profile

Navient is a U.S.-focused education finance company whose business has centered on managing student loan portfolios and providing loan servicing. Its services have included payment processing, borrower account support and repayment assistance for federal and private education loans, as well as asset-recovery and business-processing services. The company was formed in 2014 through the separation of SLM Corporation, commonly known as Sallie Mae. Navient later transferred federal student loan servicing operations to other providers, including a transfer to Maximus in 2021 and an agreement to move its remaining federal servicing accounts to MOHELA in 2024.