SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

SLM Corporation (NASDAQ:SLM)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after Compass Point downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a sell rating. The stock had previously closed at $30.85, but opened at $25.70. Compass Point now has a $23.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $35.00. SLM shares last traded at $25.3890, with a volume of 7,077,379 shares.

SLM has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down from $38.00) on shares of SLM in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen raised SLM from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Weiss Ratings raised SLM from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on SLM from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of SLM from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.89.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. City Holding Co. acquired a new position in SLM during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in SLM during the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of SLM in the 1st quarter worth $62,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of SLM in the third quarter valued at about $69,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of SLM during the first quarter valued at about $94,000. 98.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SLM Stock Down 16.2%

The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.17.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 14th. The credit services provider reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of ($3.44) million for the quarter. SLM had a return on equity of 30.13% and a net margin of 21.76%.SLM has set its FY 2022 guidance at $2.800-$3.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that SLM Corporation will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLM Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. SLM’s payout ratio is currently 18.25%.

About SLM

SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It is also involved in the provision of retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts.