Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Reduces Holdings in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its position in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM – Get Rating) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,617,260 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 12,819 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 2.25% of SLM worth $93,246,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SLM. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in SLM in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in SLM by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 6,711 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,226 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in SLM by 1,958.3% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 7,204 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 6,854 shares during the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC acquired a new stake in SLM during the 4th quarter worth approximately $135,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of SLM by 24.1% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 7,715 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,498 shares during the last quarter. 96.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Compass Point upgraded SLM from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 14th. TheStreet upgraded shares of SLM from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of SLM from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of SLM from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut SLM from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.92.

SLM Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of SLM stock opened at $15.35 on Tuesday. SLM Co. has a fifty-two week low of $10.81 and a fifty-two week high of $20.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.50. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.27. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.92 and a beta of 1.21.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $405.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $372.98 million. SLM had a net margin of 18.07% and a return on equity of 28.19%. The company’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that SLM Co. will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLM Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 2nd will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.58%.

SLM Company Profile

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SLM Corp. engages in the provision and administration of education loans. Its services include private education loans, banking, college savings, and insurance services. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Newark, DE.