Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Price Target Lowered to $7.00 at Barclays

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) had its price objective lowered by Barclays from $9.00 to $7.00 in a research report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research upgraded Navient from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $12.00 price objective on Navient in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $11.38.

Navient Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NAVI opened at $8.35 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $8.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.25. Navient has a twelve month low of $7.86 and a twelve month high of $16.07. The company has a market cap of $794.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.18 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 9.01, a current ratio of 9.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94.

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

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Investors 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 7.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -78.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 235,142 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 period. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 215,103 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 114,165 shares during the period. 97.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.