New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 53,806 Shares of Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in Navient Co. (NASDAQ:NAVI) by 90.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 113,415 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,806 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.10% of Navient worth $2,112,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NAVI. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd bought a new position in Navient during the 4th quarter worth $13,546,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in Navient by 207.8% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 231,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,320,000 after purchasing an additional 156,086 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Navient in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,441,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Navient by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,674 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,328,000 after purchasing an additional 107,543 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Navient by 14.5% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 704,608 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $12,133,000 after purchasing an additional 89,220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NAVI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Navient in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. They set a “hold” rating and a $19.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Navient from $19.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Navient from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Navient from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Navient from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Navient news, EVP Mark L. Heleen sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total value of $160,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 393,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,297,776. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 27.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Navient Stock Performance

Shares of Navient stock opened at $15.47 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $16.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.92 and a beta of 1.39. Navient Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.10 and a fifty-two week high of $19.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.38, a current ratio of 12.52 and a quick ratio of 12.52.

Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The credit services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $163.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $188.04 million. Navient had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 3.93%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Navient Co. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navient Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. Navient’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.03%.

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.