Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Rating) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.40.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Navient from $14.50 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Barclays upped their price objective on Navient from $16.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on Navient from $14.00 to $16.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Navient from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $16.00 in a report on Thursday, December 1st. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Navient from $15.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of Navient stock opened at $15.67 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.50, a current ratio of 11.42 and a quick ratio of 11.42. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.53. Navient has a one year low of $12.45 and a one year high of $19.34.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 24th. The credit services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.06). Navient had a return on equity of 16.40% and a net margin of 16.80%. The business had revenue of $232.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $253.74 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Navient will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 2nd. Navient’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.48%.

Insider Transactions at Navient

In other news, EVP John M. Kane sold 17,006 shares of Navient stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.56, for a total transaction of $281,619.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 607,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,056,937.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP John M. Kane sold 17,006 shares of Navient stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.56, for a total transaction of $281,619.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 607,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,056,937.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Stephen M. Hauber sold 11,351 shares of Navient stock in a transaction on Friday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.17, for a total transaction of $217,598.67. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 217,081 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,161,442.77. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 22.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Navient in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Navient by 89.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,937 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Navient during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Navient by 87.4% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,042 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 2,352 shares during the period. Finally, Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Navient in the third quarter worth $88,000. 70.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Navient

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Navient Corp. engages in the provision of asset management and business processing solutions for education, healthcare and government clients at the federal, state and local levels. It operates through the following segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, Business Processing and Other. The Federal Education Loans segment owns FFELP Loans and performs servicing and asset recovery services on FFELP Loan portfolio.