Wavvest Wealth LLC Purchases New Position in SLM Corporation $SLM

Wavvest Wealth LLC acquired a new position in SLM Corporation (NASDAQ:SLM) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 34,423 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $779,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in SLM during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,236,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in shares of SLM in the 2nd quarter worth $4,184,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SLM in the second quarter worth $455,576,000. PDT Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of SLM in the second quarter worth $5,261,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of SLM in the second quarter worth $37,268,000. 98.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on SLM shares. Wells Fargo & Company set a $28.00 price target on SLM in a report on Friday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on SLM from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded SLM from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on SLM from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on SLM from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.22.

SLM Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of SLM stock opened at $22.83 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day moving average is $24.75 and its 200 day moving average is $24.02. SLM Corporation has a twelve month low of $17.77 and a twelve month high of $31.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.17). SLM had a return on equity of 33.81% and a net margin of 26.09%. The company had revenue of $401.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $409.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that SLM Corporation will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. SLM’s payout ratio is currently 14.53%.

About SLM

SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, is a financial services company focused on helping students and families finance higher education. Its primary business is the origination and servicing of private education loans, which can help cover tuition, fees, books, housing and other eligible education-related expenses not fully covered by federal student aid.

The company offers private student loans for undergraduate and graduate education, as well as loans for career-training programs and other education needs.