SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.30 EPS

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The credit services provider reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.30), Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $652.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $363.40 million. SLM had a return on equity of 41.84% and a net margin of 24.67%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. SLM updated its FY 2024 guidance to 2.700-2.800 EPS.

SLM Price Performance

NASDAQ SLM opened at $21.90 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.84, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $21.94 and a 200 day moving average of $21.50. SLM has a one year low of $12.26 and a one year high of $23.95.

SLM Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders 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. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. SLM’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SLM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on SLM from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of SLM from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of SLM from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, SLM currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert S. Strong sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.70, for a total transaction of $102,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 101,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,294,811.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

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.