Wall Street Zen Upgrades Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) to Hold

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on NAVI. Morgan Stanley set a $12.00 price objective on Navient in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. 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 report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research lowered Navient from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays set a $9.00 price objective on Navient in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Navient currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and a consensus target price of $11.63.

Navient Price Performance

Navient stock opened at $8.30 on Friday. Navient has a 1 year low of $8.00 and a 1 year high of $16.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a current ratio of 9.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $10.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.04. The company has a market cap of $789.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.12 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Navient by 70.5% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 818 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its stake in Navient by 79.0% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,525 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Navient during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Navient by 39.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Navient by 3,045.4% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 5,127 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 4,964 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.