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

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $9.1429.

NAVI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Navient from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Zacks Research raised shares of Navient from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Navient in a report on Monday, April 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 16th.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Navient by 70.5% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 818 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Navient by 6.8% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 18,372 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,191 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 322,085 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,635,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 38,948 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654 shares in the last quarter. 97.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Navient Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NAVI stock opened at $8.61 on Thursday. Navient has a fifty-two week low of $7.33 and a fifty-two week high of $14.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $809.25 million, a PE ratio of -13.67 and a beta of 1.19. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.08.

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

Navient Announces Dividend

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

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.