Analysts Set Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Target Price at $12.83

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has received an average rating of “Reduce” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $12.5714.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Navient from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Navient from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Navient from $14.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Navient from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Cowen restated a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Thursday, October 30th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Navient by 790.1% in the third quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,590,339 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,913,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411,662 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its position in shares of Navient by 23.2% in the 2nd quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,848,718 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $40,167,000 after purchasing an additional 536,933 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 70.0% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 888,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,680,000 after purchasing an additional 365,677 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL increased its position in shares of Navient by 66.2% during the third quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 590,581 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,766,000 after buying an additional 235,142 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Navient by 44.7% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 696,720 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,162,000 after buying an additional 215,103 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Stock Performance

Navient stock opened at $12.84 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 9.41, a current ratio of 9.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a PE ratio of -23.78 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.06. Navient has a twelve month low of $10.53 and a twelve month high of $16.07.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.12% and a negative net margin of 1.48%.The firm had revenue of $511.00 million for the quarter. Research analysts expect that Navient will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. Navient’s payout ratio is currently -118.52%.

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.