With 3.08 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 2.77 million shares. The 52-week range on SLM shows that it touched its highest point at $32.65 and its lowest point at $19.39 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $33.00. With its current market cap of 6.33 billion, SLM has annualized dividend of $0.46 while the current yield stands at 1.53%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.25.
Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of SLM was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -7.47%, but this was up by 5.10% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 21.08% while six-month performance rose 39.03%. The stock gained 53.02% in the past year, while it has gained 9.14% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for SLM yields 2.65 with Next year EPS estimates of 3.39. For the next quarter, that number is 1.10. This implies an EPS growth rate of 14.35% for this year and 10.59% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 10.68% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 15.53%.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for SLM since 10 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 8 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 1 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $2.79021 being high and $2.60955 being low. For SLM, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $2.72999. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.87 and the low estimate is $0.4. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.59.
