Zacks Research Upgrades Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) to Strong-Buy

by · The Markets Daily

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on NAVI. Barclays lowered their price objective on Navient from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Navient from $8.00 to $8.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen restated a “sell” rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Monday, September 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $8.17.

Read Our Latest Analysis on NAVI

Navient Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ NAVI opened at $9.42 on Monday. Navient has a 1-year low of $7.33 and a 1-year high of $13.48. The company has a current ratio of 10.53, a quick ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $9.28 and a 200-day moving average of $8.72. The firm has a market cap of $883.41 million, a PE ratio of -18.84 and a beta of 1.15.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The credit services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.09. Navient had a positive return on equity of 4.68% and a negative net margin of 1.64%. The company had revenue of $150.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $142.87 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Navient will post 0.82 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Navient

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Navient in the second quarter worth about $110,235,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Navient during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,989,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Navient by 41.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,939,380 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $16,504,000 after acquiring an additional 568,590 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in shares of Navient by 145.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 939,099 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,992,000 after acquiring an additional 557,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Navient in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,435,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

About Navient

(Get Free Report)

Navient Corporation is a financial services company that provides education finance and loan management solutions. Its activities include servicing and managing private education loans and federally backed loans held in its portfolio, as well as providing related customer support, payment processing and account administration services.

The company was formed in 2014 through the separation of Sallie Mae’s education-lending and loan-servicing businesses. Navient formerly serviced a significant portion of the federal student loan portfolio, but it exited the U.S.

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