Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 73,036 Shares of Navient Corporation $NAVI

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,482,845 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 73,036 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.08% of Navient worth $97,277,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NAVI. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Navient by 11.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 98,366 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,243,000 after purchasing an additional 10,296 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Navient by 9.1% in the first 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 worth $2,657,000 after buying an additional 17,483 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Navient by 77.0% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 7,766 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 3,378 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Navient by 13.5% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 438,621 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $6,185,000 after buying an additional 52,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Navient by 6.4% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 276,778 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,903,000 after buying an additional 16,611 shares in the last quarter. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Navient from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Navient in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Navient presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.29.

Navient Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NAVI opened at $7.89 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $741.58 million, a PE ratio of -12.52 and a beta of 1.24. Navient Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $7.80 and a fifty-two week high of $16.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.49, a quick ratio of 7.67 and a current ratio of 7.67. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $8.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.54.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The credit services provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $152.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $141.47 million. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.39% and a negative net margin of 1.94%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Navient Corporation will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Navient’s dividend payout ratio is -101.59%.

Navient 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.