Brokerages Set Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Price Target at $9.14

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has received an average rating of “Reduce” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $9.1429.

NAVI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, April 20th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Navient from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th.

Navient Stock Performance

NASDAQ NAVI opened at $8.71 on Thursday. Navient has a fifty-two week low of $7.33 and a fifty-two week high of $13.87. The stock has a market cap of $818.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.83 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average of $8.30 and a 200-day moving average of $8.92. The company has a quick ratio of 7.67, a current ratio of 7.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $152.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 last year, the company earned $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Navient will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio is currently -101.59%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NAVI. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 818 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Navient by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 18,372 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Navient by 39.2% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,228 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,191 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Navient by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 322,085 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,635,000 after buying an additional 1,354 shares during the period. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased 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 valued at $319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.