Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC Acquires New Position in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 5,092,179 shares of the credit services provider's stock, valued at approximately $140,442,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC owned approximately 2.40% of SLM at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SLM. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of SLM by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,246,797 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $338,889,000 after purchasing an additional 456,415 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in SLM by 39.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,529,496 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $207,664,000 after buying an additional 2,111,699 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new position in SLM in the fourth quarter valued at about $144,101,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in SLM by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,175,645 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $142,744,000 after acquiring an additional 338,128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SLM by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,817,771 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $132,906,000 after acquiring an additional 55,443 shares during the last quarter. 98.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of SLM from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Compass Point boosted their target price on shares of SLM from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on SLM from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on SLM from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on SLM from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $31.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at SLM

In other SLM news, Director Robert S. Strong sold 3,000 shares of SLM stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.15, for a total value of $93,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 35,195 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,096,324.25. The trade was a 7.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.20% of the company's stock.

SLM Trading Up 2.6%

NASDAQ SLM opened at $33.65 on Friday. SLM Co. has a 12 month low of $19.39 and a 12 month high of $33.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.06 billion, a PE ratio of 12.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.05. The business's 50-day moving average price is $29.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.35.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The credit services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $374.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $359.83 million. SLM had a net margin of 20.73% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. On average, analysts expect that SLM Co. will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

SLM Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. SLM's payout ratio is 18.71%.

SLM Company Profile

SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It is also involved in the provision of retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts.

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