Sanctuary Advisors LLC Takes $655,000 Position in SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 28,654 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $655,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 43,927 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of SLM by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,687,920 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $118,248,000 after buying an additional 119,342 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in SLM by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,762,328 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $108,936,000 after acquiring an additional 331,490 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in SLM by 23.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,453,521 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $92,589,000 after acquiring an additional 859,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in SLM by 3,800.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,406,384 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $55,034,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344,691 shares in the last quarter. 98.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America started coverage on SLM in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $27.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on SLM from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of SLM from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $26.00 price target on shares of SLM in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective (up from $27.00) on shares of SLM in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.27.

SLM Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SLM opened at $27.96 on Wednesday. SLM Co. has a fifty-two week low of $18.04 and a fifty-two week high of $28.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.74. The company has a market cap of $5.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.74, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.21.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The credit services provider reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $652.64 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $363.40 million. SLM had a net margin of 22.18% and a return on equity of 35.92%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that SLM Co. will post 2.73 earnings per share for the current year.

SLM Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a $0.13 dividend. This is a boost from SLM’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at SLM

In other SLM news, Director Robert S. Strong sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.25, for a total transaction of $122,625.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 83,130 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,265,292.50. This represents a 5.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.