Hsbc Holdings PLC Acquires 63,023 Shares of Navient Corporation $NAVI

Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) by 124.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 113,579 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,023 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned approximately 0.12% of Navient worth $929,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NAVI. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its stake 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 valued at $40,167,000 after purchasing an additional 536,933 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Navient by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,543,796 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,069,000 after buying an additional 423,381 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Navient by 20.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,484,742 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $32,302,000 after buying an additional 418,161 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position 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 worth $11,680,000 after buying an additional 365,677 shares during the period. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in Navient by 206.7% in the 4th quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 398,152 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,176,000 after buying an additional 268,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NAVI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Navient from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Navient in a report on Monday, April 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $9.14.

Navient Price Performance

Shares of NAVI stock opened at $8.71 on Thursday. Navient Corporation has a 1 year low of $7.33 and a 1 year high of $13.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $8.30 and its 200-day moving average is $8.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $818.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.83 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 7.67, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.94% and a positive return on equity of 4.39%. The business had revenue of $152.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $141.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Navient Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.