Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $9.1429.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NAVI shares. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Navient from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Navient from $9.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 13th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Navient in a report on Monday, April 20th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Navient from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th.

Navient Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NAVI opened at $8.61 on Thursday. Navient has a 52 week low of $7.33 and a 52 week high of $14.20. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $8.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.98. The company has a quick ratio of 7.67, a current ratio of 7.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49. The firm has a market cap of $809.25 million, a P/E ratio of -13.67 and a beta of 1.19.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $152.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $141.47 million. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.94% and a positive return on equity of 4.39%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Navient will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -101.59%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Navient by 70.5% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 818 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Navient by 325.6% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,005 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 3,829 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Navient by 552.6% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,855 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,111 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Navient during the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,191 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.