Highbridge Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 65,000 Navient Corporation $NAVI

Highbridge Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 65,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $845,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NAVI. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Navient by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 98,366 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,243,000 after purchasing an additional 10,296 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Navient by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 210,350 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,657,000 after purchasing an additional 17,483 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Navient by 77.0% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 7,766 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 3,378 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Navient by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 438,621 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $6,185,000 after purchasing an additional 52,236 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Navient by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 276,778 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,903,000 after purchasing an additional 16,611 shares during the period. 97.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NAVI. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Navient from $12.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, March 27th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Navient currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.29.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of NAVI stock opened at $7.81 on Friday. Navient Corporation has a 12 month low of $7.33 and a 12 month high of $16.07. The stock has a market cap of $734.06 million, a PE ratio of -12.40 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 7.67, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $8.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.08.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its earnings results 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. Navient had a negative net margin of 1.94% and a positive return on equity of 4.39%. The firm had revenue of $152.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $141.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Navient Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Navient’s payout ratio is -101.59%.

Navient Company Profile

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.