Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $12.8333.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Cowen restated a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Navient from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on Navient from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Navient from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $12.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 4th.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NAVI. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its position in shares of Navient by 23.2% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,848,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $40,167,000 after purchasing an additional 536,933 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Navient by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,159,730 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $28,400,000 after buying an additional 138,020 shares during the last quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Navient by 790.1% in the 3rd quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,590,339 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,913,000 after buying an additional 1,411,662 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Navient by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,462,585 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $19,233,000 after buying an additional 7,284 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 32.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,903 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $18,186,000 after buying an additional 353,898 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ NAVI opened at $12.44 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.04 and a beta of 1.30. Navient has a 52 week low of $10.53 and a 52 week high of $16.07. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $12.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.14. The company has a quick ratio of 9.41, a current ratio of 9.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.98.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.12% and a negative net margin of 1.48%.The company had revenue of $511.00 million for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that Navient will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -118.52%.

About Navient

Navient Corporation provides technology-enabled education finance and business processing solutions for education, health care, and government clients in the United States. It operates through three segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, and Business Processing. The company owns Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that are insured or guaranteed by state or not-for-profit agencies; and performs servicing on its portfolios, as well as federal education loans held by other institutions.