Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.2857.

NAVI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 70.5% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 818 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 325.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,005 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 3,829 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Navient during the 4th quarter worth about $44,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 39.2% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,228 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 1,191 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 3,045.4% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,127 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 4,964 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Price Performance

Navient stock opened at $7.81 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $734.05 million, a P/E ratio of -12.40 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.08. The company has a current ratio of 7.67, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49. Navient has a 1-year low of $7.33 and a 1-year high of $16.07.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $152.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $141.47 million. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.94% and a positive return on equity of 4.39%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Navient will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -101.59%.

Navient Company 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.