Bank of Montreal Can Purchases Shares of 112,564 SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 112,564 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,885,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of SLM during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,638,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of SLM by 22.3% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,114 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in SLM by 3.7% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,508,493 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $24,619,000 after acquiring an additional 53,992 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new stake in SLM in the second quarter worth $2,251,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in SLM by 19.8% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 70,259 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 11,616 shares during the period. 95.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on SLM. TheStreet lowered SLM from a “b” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 25th. Wedbush lowered their price objective on SLM from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on SLM from $19.50 to $16.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on SLM from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 6th. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on SLM in a research report on Wednesday, November 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $17.50 price target for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.00.

SLM Stock Down 1.6 %

SLM opened at $14.72 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.97. SLM Co. has a twelve month low of $10.81 and a twelve month high of $17.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.90 and a beta of 1.22.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The credit services provider reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.22). SLM had a net margin of 12.76% and a return on equity of 21.83%. The company had revenue of $409.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.34 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that SLM Co. will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 1st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.59%.

SLM Company Profile

SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It also offers retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market deposit accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts.