Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has been given an average recommendation of “Reduce” by the nine ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $9.2857.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NAVI shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Navient in a report on Monday, April 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, March 27th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th.

Navient Trading Down 4.5%

NAVI stock opened at $8.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $8.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.19. Navient has a fifty-two week low of $7.80 and a fifty-two week high of $16.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a current ratio of 7.67. The firm has a market cap of $762.26 million, a PE ratio of -12.87 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Navient Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Navient’s payout ratio is presently -101.59%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Navient by 70.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 818 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Navient during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake 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. boosted its stake 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.