Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) Receives $11.63 Average Price Target from Analysts

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Strong Sell” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $11.6250.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $12.00 target price on Navient in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Navient from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in Navient by 23.2% during 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 423,381 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Navient by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,484,742 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,302,000 after purchasing an additional 418,161 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Navient by 70.0% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 888,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,680,000 after buying an additional 365,677 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Price Performance

Shares of NAVI opened at $8.23 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $782.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.04 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.52. Navient has a twelve month low of $7.86 and a twelve month high of $16.07. The company has a current ratio of 9.01, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.29). Navient had a negative net margin of 2.47% and a positive return on equity of 4.70%. The business had revenue of $137.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.25 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.24) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Navient will post 1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.8%. Navient’s payout ratio is -78.05%.

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.