Navient Corporation Offers 4.7% Dividend Yield (NAVI)

The Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI) has been rewarding its shareholders with steady annual dividend payouts over the past several years and currently offers a 4.7% yield that is significantly above the simple average yield of all the companies in its market segment.

The current share price is slightly lower than it was 12 months ago. However, after reaching its bottom in mid-October, the share price has been ascending on a steady uptrend. A continued uptrend could trigger technical indicators that the share price has room to advance even further in the next few months.

The Navi Corporation’s next ex-dividend date will be on March 1, 2018, and the pay date will follow approximately two weeks later, on March 16, 2018.

Navient Corporation (NASDAQ:NAVI)

Based in Wilmington, Delaware, and founded in 1973, the Navient Corporation provides asset management and business processing services to education, health care and government clients and operates in three segments — Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) Loans, Private Education Loans and Business Services. The company’s portfolio contains education loans insured or guaranteed under the FFELP and private education loans. Additionally, the company holds education loans owned by the United States Department of Education (ED), financial institutions and nonprofit education lenders. The company also offers asset recovery and other business processing services for loans and receivables on behalf of guarantors of FFELP loans and higher education institutions, as well as federal, state, court and municipal clients.

The company started distributing dividends to its shareholders in 2014 with an initial $0.15 quarterly amount. For its second year, the company raised its payout 6.7% to a $0.16 quarterly distribution and continues to pay the same amount in the first quarter of 2018. That quarterly distribution converts to a $0.64 annualized payout and a 4.7% forward yield.

While the company’s current yield is approximately 11% below the simple average yield of the entire Financial sector, it fares better when compared to other companies in the narrower Credit Services market segment. Navient Corporation’s current 4.7% yield is almost 8% above the 4.3% average yield of only dividend-paying companies in the segment and almost 80% higher than the 2.6% simple average yield of all companies in the Credit Services segment.

The share price struggled during the first eight months of the current trailing one-year period. However, the share price has been on a steady uptrend and has made significant advances over the last four months. After some volatility and two drops of more than 10%, the share price rose 9.7% from its February 7, 2017, level of $15.33 to its 52-week high of $16.81 by July 3, 2017.

However, the peak price levels did not persist. In just a little more than two weeks, the share price gave back all the gains of the previous five months and continued to drop for a total loss of more than 27% between the July peak and the 52-week low of $11.13 on October 13, 2017. After the October low, the share price reversed direction and rose more than 23% to close on February 6, 2018 at $13.76.

That closing price is still 18% below the 52-week high from July 2017 and 10% below the share price from 12 months earlier. However, the current share price has gained 23.6% over the past four months since the 52-week low in mid-October 2017. While the share price is still short of recent levels, the current four-month uptrend is the first such trend without a 5%-plus interim drop. Since the 52-week low in October, the share price advanced at an average growth rate of 5.6% per month.

The share price’s 50-day Moving Average (MA) fell between the beginning of August and mid-December 2017. However, since reversing trend on December 14, 2017, the 50-day MA has closed the difference to the 200-day MA. If the current trend continues, the 50-day MA could reach — and cross above — the 200-day MA in the next 30 days. In that case, the share price could extend its uptrend over the next couple of periods.

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