Reviewing SLM (NASDAQ:SLMBP) and Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI)

SLM (NASDAQ:SLMBP) and Navient (NASDAQ:NAVI) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.1% of Navient shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.8% of Navient shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for SLM and Navient, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLM	0	1	2	0	2.67
Navient	4	5	0	0	1.56

SLM presently has a consensus target price of $40.00, indicating a potential downside of 46.73%. Navient has a consensus target price of $9.14, indicating a potential upside of 0.91%. Given Navient’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Navient is more favorable than SLM.

Profitability

This table compares SLM and Navient’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLM	N/A	N/A	N/A
Navient	-1.94%	4.39%	0.22%

Dividends

SLM pays an annual dividend of $7.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.8%. Navient pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. Navient pays out -101.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SLM and Navient”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SLM	$1.96 billion	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Navient	$606.00 million	1.41	-$80.00 million	($0.63)	-14.38

SLM has higher revenue and earnings than Navient.

Summary

Navient beats SLM on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company was formerly known as New BLC Corporation and changed its name to SLM Corporation in December 2013. SLM Corporation was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Newark, Delaware.

About Navient

Navient Corporation provides technology-enabled education finance and business processing solutions for education, health care, and government clients in the United States. It operates through three segments: Federal Education Loans, Consumer Lending, and Business Processing. The company owns Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that are insured or guaranteed by state or not-for-profit agencies; and performs servicing on its portfolios, as well as federal education loans held by other institutions. It also owns, originates, and services refinance and in-school private education loans; and offers business processing solutions, such as omnichannel contact center, workflow processing, and revenue cycle optimization services to federal agencies, state governments, tolling and parking authorities, other public sector clients, as well as hospitals, hospital systems, medical centers, large physician groups, other healthcare providers, and public health departments. In addition, the company provides corporate liquidity portfolio services. Navient Corporation was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.