Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold” Rating

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays set a $9.00 price target on shares of Navient in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $12.00 price objective on Navient in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Navient currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $11.63.

Navient Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NAVI stock opened at $8.18 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 9.01, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94. Navient has a twelve month low of $7.86 and a twelve month high of $16.07. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.39. The stock has a market cap of $777.84 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.98 and a beta of 1.33.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.70% and a negative net margin of 2.47%.The firm had revenue of $137.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Navient will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Navient

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Navient by 790.1% during the third quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,590,339 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,913,000 after purchasing an additional 1,411,662 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its stake in shares of Navient by 23.2% in the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,848,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $40,167,000 after buying an additional 536,933 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Navient by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,543,796 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,069,000 after buying an additional 423,381 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Navient by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,484,742 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,302,000 after buying an additional 418,161 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Navient by 70.0% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 888,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,680,000 after buying an additional 365,677 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

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.