JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Price Target to $8.50

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) had its target price reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $10.50 to $8.50 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Zacks Research raised Navient from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Navient from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $10.88.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of Navient stock opened at $7.94 on Thursday. Navient has a one year low of $7.86 and a one year high of $16.07. The company has a market cap of $755.01 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.68 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a current ratio of 9.01. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $8.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.13.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.29). The company had revenue of $137.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.25 million. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.70% and a negative net margin of 2.47%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.24) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Navient will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Navient’s payout ratio is -78.05%.

Institutional Trading of Navient

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL increased its position in Navient by 66.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 590,581 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,766,000 after acquiring an additional 235,142 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 138,020 shares during the period. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,411,662 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Navient by 44.7% in the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 696,720 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,162,000 after acquiring an additional 215,103 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Navient by 4,721.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 116,583 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,533,000 after acquiring an additional 114,165 shares during the period. 97.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.