Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Shares Climb 7.6% – Here’s Why

Shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) shot up 7.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $8.62 and last traded at $8.7550. 72,886 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 1,143,312 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.14.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NAVI has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Navient from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $8.17.

Navient Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $825.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.61 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73, a current ratio of 10.53 and a quick ratio of 10.53. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.99.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.09. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.64% and a positive return on equity of 4.68%. The business had revenue of $150.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Navient Corporation will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.3%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio is presently -128.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Navient in the 2nd quarter valued at $110,235,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Navient by 41.5% during the second 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 period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Navient in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,989,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in Navient by 145.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 939,099 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,992,000 after purchasing an additional 557,141 shares during the period. Finally, PDT Partners LLC acquired a new position in Navient in the 2nd quarter worth $4,435,000. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Navient Company Profile

Navient Corp. (NASDAQ:NAVI) is a financial services company that provides education finance and business-processing solutions. The company has historically serviced and managed federal and private student loans, helping borrowers with account administration, repayment processing, customer support and related loan-management services.

Navient’s operations have evolved as the company reduced its role in servicing federally owned student loans. In 2021, it transferred its federal student loan servicing portfolio to Aidvantage, a division of Maximus.