Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Purchases 97,832 Shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its position in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) by 50.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 290,636 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 97,832 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in SLM were worth $6,042,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of SLM by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,136,784 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $633,575,000 after acquiring an additional 1,151,557 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of SLM by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,461,356 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $271,626,000 after purchasing an additional 674,424 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of SLM by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,473,007 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $123,767,000 after purchasing an additional 170,764 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of SLM during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,108,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of SLM by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,726,549 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $33,012,000 after buying an additional 88,204 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SLM. Wedbush increased their target price on SLM from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of SLM from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SLM currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.00.

Insider Activity at SLM

In other SLM news, Director Robert S. Strong sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.70, for a total value of $102,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 101,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,294,811.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

SLM Stock Down 0.9 %

SLM stock opened at $20.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.27, a PEG ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.15. SLM Co. has a 52-week low of $12.26 and a 52-week high of $23.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $21.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.19.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The credit services provider reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.32. SLM had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 41.84%. The business had revenue of $783.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $368.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that SLM Co. will post 2.83 EPS for the current year.

SLM Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 5th will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.75%.

About SLM

SLM Corporation, through its subsidiaries, originates and services private education loans to students and their families to finance the cost of their education in the United States. It is also involved in the provision of retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; and interest-bearing omnibus accounts.