Legal & General Group Plc Purchases Shares of 152,188 Navient Corporation $NAVI

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 152,188 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,295,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NAVI. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in shares of Navient during the 2nd quarter valued at $165,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Navient in the 2nd quarter worth $467,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Navient in the 2nd quarter worth $2,530,000. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new stake in Navient during the second quarter valued at about $100,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Navient during the second quarter valued at about $110,235,000. 97.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. TD Cowen reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Navient from $9.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 13th. Five 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 currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.14.

Navient Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NAVI opened at $9.63 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $903.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.26 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $8.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.57. Navient Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $7.33 and a fifty-two week high of $13.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73, a quick ratio of 10.53 and a current ratio of 10.53.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $150.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.87 million. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.64% and a positive return on equity of 4.68%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Navient Corporation will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Navient’s payout ratio is -128.00%.

Navient Profile

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.