SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) Shares Climb 4.1% – Time to Buy?

by · The Markets Daily

SLM Corporation (NASDAQ:SLM – Get Free Report)’s stock price rose 4.1% on Monday. The stock traded as high as $23.42 and last traded at $23.4440. 996,542 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 3,023,028 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.52.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on SLM shares. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (down from $30.00) on shares of SLM in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on SLM from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wall Street Zen cut SLM from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of SLM in a report on Monday, September 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on SLM from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.70.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on SLM

SLM Stock Up 3.7%

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.94. The stock has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.33.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.29 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 business had revenue of $401.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $409.22 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. SLM has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.200 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that SLM Corporation will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.53%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SLM

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in SLM by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 13,461 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after acquiring an additional 1,882 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of SLM by 52.1% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,819 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of SLM by 48.7% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,016 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of SLM by 32.2% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,623 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,728,000 after purchasing an additional 16,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of SLM by 5.5% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 497,731 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $12,911,000 after purchasing an additional 26,026 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.94% of the company’s stock.

SLM Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

SLM Corp., operating under the Sallie Mae brand, is a financial services company focused on education financing. It primarily provides private student loans to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as education loans for parents and other creditworthy borrowers. Sallie Mae also offers related products and resources designed to help families plan and pay for college.

The company’s private education loans can be used for eligible expenses such as tuition, fees, books, supplies, and living costs.

See Also