SLM Corporation $SLM Stock Sold by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lessened its stake in shares of SLM Corporation (NASDAQ:SLM) by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 121,800 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 39,500 shares during the quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned 0.07% of SLM worth $2,756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SLM. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in SLM in the second quarter valued at $2,236,000. PDT Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of SLM during the second quarter valued at $5,261,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of SLM during the second quarter valued at $455,576,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of SLM during the second quarter valued at $37,268,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of SLM during the second quarter valued at $3,349,000. Institutional investors own 98.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SLM shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of SLM from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of SLM from $32.00 to $27.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 12th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of SLM from $26.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of SLM from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.44.

SLM Trading Up 0.4%

SLM stock opened at $17.88 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $23.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.54. SLM Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $17.35 and a fifty-two week high of $31.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The credit services provider reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.36). The business had revenue of $375.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $453.34 million. SLM had a return on equity of 26.34% and a net margin of 20.43%. SLM’s revenue for the quarter was down 31.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. Analysts expect that SLM Corporation will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. SLM’s payout ratio is currently 18.84%.

SLM Profile

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.