Sallie Mae Swings to 3Q Loss of 19 Cents a Share
SLM sits 23% above its 52-week low of $17.77 on elevated volume (3.4× avg).
Summary
Sallie Mae posted a third-quarter loss of 19 cents per share, a loss of $32.3M, a sharp reversal from the profit it reported a year earlier. Net interest income came in at $339M, and net charge-offs were $90M, while private education loan originations reached $3.4B, up 15%. The miss lands on top of a weak second quarter, when earnings fell 18% to $54.9M and EPS of $0.29 badly missed consensus as net interest margin compressed 56 basis points to 4.75% and operating expenses rose 17%. Two straight quarters of deteriorating profitability put the credit-quality and funding-cost story front and center for a consumer lender of this size. The company now guides to FY26 EPS of $1.95 to $2.05 and sees FY26 private education loan originations growth of 12% to 14%. It has been leaning on buybacks — a $500M authorization plus a $200M accelerated repurchase earlier this year — which supports EPS but does nothing for the underlying loss trend.
At the time of this announcement, SLM was trading at $21.82 on NASDAQ in the Finance sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.1B. The 52-week trading range was $17.77 to $31.06. This news item was assessed with neutral market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: Dow Jones Newswires.