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

Shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) have received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $9.1429.

NAVI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. 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.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake 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 worth $16,504,000 after purchasing an additional 568,590 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Navient in the second quarter worth $3,176,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Navient in the second quarter worth $1,295,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Navient in the first quarter worth $1,227,000. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Navient during the second quarter worth $2,530,000. 97.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of NAVI opened at $9.84 on Friday. Navient has a one year low of $7.33 and a one year high of $13.50. The company has a 50-day moving average of $9.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $8.60. The stock has a market cap of $922.80 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.68 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73, a current ratio of 10.53 and a quick ratio of 10.53.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released 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 business had revenue of $150.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Navient will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Navient’s payout ratio is -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.