Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Given New $8.50 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Key Points

• JPMorgan cut its price target on Navient from $10.50 to $8.50 and maintained a "neutral" rating, implying only about a 2.35% upside from the current share price.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly negative — the stock carries a consensus rating of “Reduce” with several firms lowering targets or issuing underweight/sell calls, though a few have moved to hold; the consensus target price is $10.88.
• Navient recently posted an earnings miss (Q EPS $0.02 vs. $0.31 estimate; revenue $137M vs. $144.25M), and the shares trade near a 1-year low at about $8.31 with a market cap around $790M and a negative P/E.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI - Get Free Report) had its price target lowered by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $10.50 to $8.50 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the credit services provider's stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 2.35% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on NAVI. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Navient from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Navient from $9.00 to $7.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Zacks Research raised shares of Navient from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Navient from $15.00 to $9.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Navient in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $10.88.

Navient Price Performance

NAVI stock traded down $0.32 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.31. The stock had a trading volume of 300,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,037,004. The company's 50 day moving average price is $8.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.20. Navient has a 1-year low of $7.86 and a 1-year high of $16.07. The stock has a market cap of $789.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.13 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.94, a quick ratio of 9.01 and a current ratio of 9.01.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The credit services provider reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.29). Navient had a negative net margin of 2.47% and a positive return on equity of 4.70%. The firm had revenue of $137.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.25 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.24) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Navient will post 1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Navient

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NAVI. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Navient by 790.1% during the 3rd quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,590,339 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $20,913,000 after buying an additional 1,411,662 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in Navient by 23.2% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,848,718 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $40,167,000 after purchasing an additional 536,933 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Navient by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,543,796 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $20,069,000 after purchasing an additional 423,381 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Navient by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,484,742 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $32,302,000 after purchasing an additional 418,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Navient by 70.0% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 888,186 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $11,680,000 after purchasing an additional 365,677 shares during the last quarter. 97.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Navient

Navient Corporation NASDAQ: NAVI is a specialized provider of asset management and business processing solutions, with a primary focus on student loan servicing. Established in 2014 through the separation from Sallie Mae, Navient assumed responsibility for servicing federal and private education loans, positioning itself as one of the largest servicers of higher education debt in the United States.

The company's core activities center on federal student loan servicing under contracts with the U.S.

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