9,055 Shares in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) Purchased by Pallas Capital Advisors LLC

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 9,055 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Waldron Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SLM during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in SLM by 358.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,399 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in SLM during the second quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in SLM by 378.1% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,050 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of SLM by 13.3% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,077 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $116,000 after buying an additional 594 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on SLM. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of SLM in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on SLM from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on SLM from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays dropped their price target on SLM from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of SLM in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.45.

SLM Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SLM opened at $21.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $22.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.27. SLM Co. has a 1-year low of $13.52 and a 1-year high of $23.95. The company has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.15.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The credit services provider reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.07 by ($0.30). SLM had a return on equity of 35.92% and a net margin of 22.18%. The company had revenue of $652.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $363.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.11 EPS. Analysts forecast that SLM Co. will post 2.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SLM Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is an increase from SLM’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio is 18.12%.

SLM Profile

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.