Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given Average Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has earned an average rating of “Reduce” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research 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 brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $12.8333.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Navient from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Cowen reissued 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Navient from $14.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Navient by 79.0% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,525 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in Navient during the third quarter valued at $68,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Navient during the third quarter worth about $88,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Navient by 77.0% during the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 7,766 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 3,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV bought a new position in Navient in the 3rd quarter worth about $143,000. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Navient Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NAVI opened at $12.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.98, a current ratio of 9.41 and a quick ratio of 9.41. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -23.67 and a beta of 1.29. Navient has a 1 year low of $10.53 and a 1 year high of $16.07. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.07.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.97 earnings per share 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 during the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Navient will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. Navient’s payout ratio is currently -118.52%.

Navient Company Profile

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ: NAVI) is a specialized provider of asset management and business processing solutions, with a primary focus on student loan servicing. Established in 2014 through the separation from Sallie Mae, Navient assumed responsibility for servicing federal and private education loans, positioning itself as one of the largest servicers of higher education debt in the United States.

The company’s core activities center on federal student loan servicing under contracts with the U.S.