Investors Purchase Large Volume of SLM Put Options (NASDAQ:SLM)

SLM Co. (NASDAQ:SLM) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 6,026 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,182% compared to the typical volume of 470 put options.

Institutional Trading of SLM

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC boosted its position in SLM by 170.0% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 14,917 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $310,000 after acquiring an additional 9,393 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in SLM by 208.2% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 98,866 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,055,000 after acquiring an additional 66,789 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in SLM by 6.0% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 120,732 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,595,000 after acquiring an additional 6,837 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in SLM by 5.7% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,461,356 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $271,626,000 after acquiring an additional 674,424 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invst LLC acquired a new position in shares of SLM in the 1st quarter valued at $807,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on SLM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of SLM from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of SLM from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of SLM from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of SLM in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.18.

SLM Price Performance

Shares of SLM stock traded up $0.95 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $21.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,862,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,928,521. The business has a fifty day moving average of $20.92 and a 200-day moving average of $20.47. The stock has a market cap of $4.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.17. SLM has a twelve month low of $12.26 and a twelve month high of $22.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.67.

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The credit services provider reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $837.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $376.43 million. SLM had a net margin of 25.15% and a return on equity of 45.65%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that SLM will post 2.78 EPS for the current year.

SLM Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 6th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. SLM’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.