Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Stock Falls 7.2% – Time to Sell?

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) fell 7.2% during mid-day trading on Monday. The stock traded as low as $8.05 and last traded at $7.8110. Approximately 62,786 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 1,169,570 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NAVI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Navient from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 5th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Navient from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Navient from $8.50 to $9.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Monday, September 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $8.00.

Navient Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $632.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 7.50, a quick ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.82.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The credit services provider reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $308.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.92 million. Navient had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 3.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.84) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Navient Corporation will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th were given a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. Navient’s payout ratio is currently 120.75%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NAVI. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Navient by 286.7% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,223 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 3,131 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Navient by 325.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,005 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 3,829 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Navient by 552.6% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,855 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 4,111 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in Navient during the first quarter valued at about $72,000. Finally, Greenwood Gearhart LLC bought a new position in Navient during the first quarter valued at about $84,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Navient Company Profile

Navient is a U.S.-focused education finance company whose business has centered on managing student loan portfolios and providing loan servicing. Its services have included payment processing, borrower account support and repayment assistance for federal and private education loans, as well as asset-recovery and business-processing services. The company was formed in 2014 through the separation of SLM Corporation, commonly known as Sallie Mae. Navient later transferred federal student loan servicing operations to other providers, including a transfer to Maximus in 2021 and an agreement to move its remaining federal servicing accounts to MOHELA in 2024.