Wealthfront Advisers LLC Buys Shares of 19,428 SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 19,428 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $536,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of SLM by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,923,576 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $158,342,000 after acquiring an additional 43,927 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of SLM during the third quarter worth about $623,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of SLM during the third quarter worth about $3,250,000. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP raised its position in shares of SLM by 62.9% during the third quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP now owns 177,840 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,067,000 after acquiring an additional 68,642 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of SLM during the third quarter worth about $268,000. 98.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on SLM from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Barclays raised their target price on SLM from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on SLM from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on SLM from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on SLM from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, SLM currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.45.

Insider Activity at SLM

In related news, Director Robert S. Strong sold 40,000 shares of SLM stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.57, for a total transaction of $1,142,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 43,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,166.91. The trade was a 48.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

SLM Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of SLM stock opened at $29.26 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.32. SLM Co. has a 52 week low of $19.39 and a 52 week high of $32.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a PE ratio of 11.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.23.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The credit services provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.06). SLM had a net margin of 20.73% and a return on equity of 31.66%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that SLM Co. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLM Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. SLM’s payout ratio is 19.62%.

SLM Company 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.