SLM (SLM) Competitors

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) and SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in NAVI or SLM?

97.1% of Navient shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of SLM shares are owned by institutional investors. 31.2% of Navient shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of SLM shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, NAVI or SLM?

SLM has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Navient. SLM is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Navient, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Navient	$4.43B	0.32	$131M	$0.50	28.26
SLM	$2.62B	2.63	$608.33M	$2.78	11.81

Does the media refer more to NAVI or SLM?

In the previous week, Navient and Navient both had 8 articles in the media. SLM's average media sentiment score of 0.57 beat Navient's score of 0.48 indicating that SLM is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Navient	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
SLM	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, NAVI or SLM?

Navient has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SLM has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is NAVI or SLM a better dividend stock?

Navient pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. SLM pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Navient pays out 128.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SLM pays out 18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SLM has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Is NAVI or SLM more profitable?

SLM has a net margin of 21.05% compared to Navient's net margin of 1.37%. SLM's return on equity of 31.25% beat Navient's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Navient	1.37%	5.20%	0.26%
SLM	21.05%	31.25%	2.12%

Do analysts recommend NAVI or SLM?

Navient presently has a consensus target price of $13.71, suggesting a potential downside of 2.94%. SLM has a consensus target price of $33.40, suggesting a potential upside of 1.74%. Given SLM's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SLM is more favorable than Navient.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Navient	3 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.88
SLM	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90

Summary

SLM beats Navient on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.