Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI) to Issue $0.16 Quarterly Dividend

Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.16 per share by the credit services provider on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th.

Navient has a payout ratio of 42.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Navient to earn $1.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.8%.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of NAVI stock traded down $0.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $15.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 911,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 787,729. The business has a fifty day moving average of $15.38 and a 200-day moving average of $15.22. The company has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a PE ratio of 22.01 and a beta of 1.39. Navient has a 52 week low of $13.71 and a 52 week high of $19.68. The company has a current ratio of 9.49, a quick ratio of 9.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.59.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $1.20. The company had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $150.04 million. Navient had a net margin of 1.71% and a return on equity of 8.62%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Navient will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Navient

In other news, EVP Stephen M. Hauber sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $150,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 256,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,853,245. This trade represents a 3.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 27.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NAVI has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Navient from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Navient from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Navient from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Navient from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Navient in a research report on Monday, September 30th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Navient currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.75.

About Navient

Navient Corporation provides technology-enabled education finance and business processing solutions for education, health care, and government clients in the United States. It operates through three segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, and Business Processing. The company owns Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that are insured or guaranteed by state or not-for-profit agencies; and performs servicing on its portfolios, as well as federal education loans held by other institutions.