Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given New $17.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) had its target price lowered by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Navient in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. They set a hold rating and a $19.00 target price for the company. Stephens downgraded shares of Navient from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and set a $16.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Navient from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and reduced their target price for the company from $18.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Navient from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Barclays restated an underweight rating and set a $14.00 price target (down from $17.00) on shares of Navient in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $16.30.

Navient Stock Performance

Navient stock traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $15.74. The company had a trading volume of 189,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 919,943. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.38, a current ratio of 12.52 and a quick ratio of 13.63. Navient has a one year low of $14.10 and a one year high of $19.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $16.56 and a 200 day moving average of $17.10. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a PE ratio of 10.10 and a beta of 1.38.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The credit services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $163.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.04 million. Navient had a net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 12.09%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Navient will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Mark L. Heleen sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.20, for a total transaction of $172,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 385,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,631,924.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 27.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Navient

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Navient by 314.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,193 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 1,664 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 165.1% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 70,393 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 43,843 shares in the last quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Navient by 277.8% in the 3rd quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 1,511 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,111 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in Navient by 367.7% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,795 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $117,000 after buying an additional 5,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meritage Portfolio Management lifted its stake in Navient by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 29,612 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 1,540 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Company Profile

Navient Corporation provides technology-enabled education finance and business processing solutions for education, health care, and government clients in the United States. It operates through three segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, and Business Processing. The company owns Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that are insured or guaranteed by state or not-for-profit agencies; and performs servicing on its portfolios, as well as federal education loans held by other institutions.