Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Bank of America

Bank of America started coverage on shares of Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) in a report issued on Monday. The firm issued an underperform rating and a $7.00 price target on the credit services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Navient from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $9.57.

Navient Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of Navient stock opened at $9.01 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94, a current ratio of 9.01 and a quick ratio of 9.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $8.58 and a 200 day moving average of $10.93. The firm has a market cap of $846.85 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.99 and a beta of 1.27. Navient has a 1 year low of $7.80 and a 1 year high of $16.07.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.29). The business had revenue of $137.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 earned ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Navient will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.1%. Navient’s payout ratio is currently -78.05%.

Institutional Trading of Navient

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Navient by 74.0% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 31,692 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 13,482 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Navient by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 12,604 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,706 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Navient by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 462,974 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $6,019,000 after acquiring an additional 18,064 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Navient in the fourth quarter worth approximately $188,000. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Navient by 67.7% in the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 513,449 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $6,675,000 after acquiring an additional 207,291 shares during the period. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Navient

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.