Engineers Gate Manager LP Raises Stock Position in Navient Corporation $NAVI

Key Points

• Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its Navient stake by 329.5% in the second quarter, adding 129,841 shares to own 169,241 shares valued at approximately $1.44 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 97.14% of NAVI’s outstanding stock.
• Analysts remain cautious, with a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $9.14; JPMorgan recently cut its target to $8.00, while several firms maintain sell ratings.
• Navient exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.29 EPS versus the $0.20 consensus and $150 million in revenue. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, representing a 6.5% annualized yield.

Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its stake in shares of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI - Free Report) by 329.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 169,241 shares of the credit services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 129,841 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP owned about 0.18% of Navient worth $1,440,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NAVI. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Navient by 0.4% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 322,085 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $2,635,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 4.4% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 38,948 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 88.0% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,754 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 2,693 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Navient by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30,707 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $261,000 after purchasing an additional 2,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd increased its position in Navient by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 13,400 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 3,309 shares in the last quarter. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Navient from $9.50 to $8.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 13th. TD Cowen reiterated a "sell" rating on shares of Navient in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $9.14.

Navient Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NAVI stock opened at $9.84 on Friday. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $9.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.60. The stock has a market cap of $922.80 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.68 and a beta of 1.18. Navient Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $7.33 and a fifty-two week high of $13.50. The company has a quick ratio of 10.53, a current ratio of 10.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.73.

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, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $142.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Navient Corporation will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Navient's payout ratio is presently -128.00%.

About Navient

Navient Corporation NASDAQ: NAVI is a U.S.-based provider of education finance and business processing solutions. The company's activities include originating and servicing private education loans, providing loan asset management services, and supporting government and commercial clients with administrative and customer-service functions.

Navient traces its history to the creation of the Student Loan Marketing Association, commonly known as Sallie Mae, in 1972. In 2014, Sallie Mae separated its consumer banking and education-finance operations from its government-guaranteed student loan servicing business.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.