Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) Downgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Rating) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Navient from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. 888 restated a “reiterates” rating on shares of Navient in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Navient from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 17th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Navient from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Navient from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Navient has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.30.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NAVI traded up $0.32 on Friday, hitting $15.55. The company had a trading volume of 669,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 983,722. Navient has a 1-year low of $12.45 and a 1-year high of $19.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $15.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.65. The company has a current ratio of 10.99, a quick ratio of 10.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 19.40.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The credit services provider reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.18. Navient had a net margin of 12.07% and a return on equity of 16.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $230.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Navient will post 3.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NAVI. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Navient in the first quarter worth about $236,000. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Navient in the first quarter worth about $382,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Navient by 36.6% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 180,855 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,082,000 after acquiring an additional 48,483 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in shares of Navient by 5.6% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 56,439 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $962,000 after acquiring an additional 3,003 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Navient by 22.9% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 2,641,958 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,019,000 after acquiring an additional 491,644 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.48% of the company’s stock.

Navient Company Profile

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Navient Corp. engages in the provision of asset management and business processing solutions for education, healthcare and government clients at the federal, state and local levels. It operates through the following segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, Business Processing and Other. The Federal Education Loans segment owns FFELP Loans and performs servicing and asset recovery services on FFELP Loan portfolio.