Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Share Price Passes Above 50 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) passed above its 50-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 50-day moving average of $8.37 and traded as high as $8.55. Navient shares last traded at $8.43, with a volume of 1,116,743 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NAVI. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, April 20th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $9.29.

Navient Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $817.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.81 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a current ratio of 7.67.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.39% and a negative net margin of 1.94%.The business had revenue of $152.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $141.47 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Navient Corporation will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.4%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -101.59%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Navient

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 70.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 818 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Navient by 325.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,005 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 3,829 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Navient during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Navient by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,228 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,191 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Navient by 3,045.4% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,127 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 4,964 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.