Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Stock Has Average Price Target of $8.17 According to Analysts

Shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) have been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $8.17.

NAVI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen restated a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Navient from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th.

Navient Stock Performance

Navient stock opened at $9.00 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.94. The company has a quick ratio of 10.53, a current ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73. The company has a market cap of $844.02 million, a PE ratio of 6.96 and a beta of 1.15. Navient has a twelve month low of $7.33 and a twelve month high of $13.48.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $150.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.87 million. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.64% and a positive return on equity of 4.68%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Navient will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.1%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -128.00%.

Institutional Trading of Navient

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Navient in the second quarter worth $1,295,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Navient by 41.5% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,939,380 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $16,504,000 after purchasing an additional 568,590 shares during the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its position in Navient by 290.4% during the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 188,946 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 140,550 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its position in Navient by 329.5% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 169,241 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,440,000 after purchasing an additional 129,841 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Navient in the second quarter valued at $3,176,000. 97.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Navient

Navient Corp. (NASDAQ:NAVI) is a financial services company that provides education finance and business-processing solutions. The company has historically serviced and managed federal and private student loans, helping borrowers with account administration, repayment processing, customer support and related loan-management services.

Navient’s operations have evolved as the company reduced its role in servicing federally owned student loans. In 2021, it transferred its federal student loan servicing portfolio to Aidvantage, a division of Maximus.