How to buy SLM Corporation stock | $11.51

SLM Corporation is a credit services business based in the US. SLM Corporation shares (SLM) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. SLM Corporation employs 1,900 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$1.4 billion.

How to buy shares in SLM Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for SLM Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: SLM. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until SLM Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$11.51, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of SLM Corporation, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of SLM Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

SLM Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of SLM stocks over time.

SLM Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-11-30.

Latest market close	USD$11.51
52-week range	USD$5.5569 - USD$12.1916
50-day moving average	USD$10.0088
200-day moving average	USD$8.113
Wall St. target price	USD$11.73
PE ratio	7.3375
Dividend yield	USD$0.12 (1.09%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$1.446

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Is it a good time to buy SLM Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of SLM Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

SLM Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $11.51 from 2020-12-09

1 week (2021-01-08)	-11.67%
1 month (2020-12-15)	-6.19%
3 months (2020-10-15)	21.93%
6 months (2020-07-15)	67.18%

1 year (2020-01-15)	33.68%
2 years (2019-01-15)	28.03%
3 years (2018-01-15)	N/A
5 years (2016-01-15)	112.36%

Is SLM Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing SLM Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of SLM Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

SLM Corporation's P/E ratio

SLM Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 7x. In other words, SLM Corporation shares trade at around 7x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

SLM Corporation's PEG ratio

SLM Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.5827. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into SLM Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

SLM Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	USD$1.4 billion
Operating margin TTM	59.07%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1.3 billion
Return on assets TTM	1.91%
Return on equity TTM	21.89%
Profit margin	43.22%
Book value	$4.798
Market capitalisation	USD$4 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting SLM Corporation shares

There are currently 8.5 million SLM Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as SLM Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 31.7% down from 12.5 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting SLM Corporation shares can be evaluated.

SLM Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

SLM Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of SLM Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of SLM Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 4.1 million). SLM Corporation's SIR currently stands at 2.07. In other words for every 100,000 SLM Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2070 shares are currently held short.

However SLM Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of SLM Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable SLM Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case SLM Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 SLM Corporation shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0228% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable SLM Corporation shares, roughly 23 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against SLM Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short SLM Corporation stock.

SLM Corporation's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like SLM Corporation.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

SLM Corporation's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 24.19

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and SLM Corporation's overall score of 24.19 (as at 01/01/2019) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 31st percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like SLM Corporation is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

SLM Corporation's environmental score

Environmental score: 6.61/100

SLM Corporation's environmental score of 6.61 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that SLM Corporation is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

SLM Corporation's social score

Social score: 14.48/100

SLM Corporation's social score of 14.48 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that SLM Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

SLM Corporation's governance score

Governance score: 16.61/100

SLM Corporation's governance score puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that SLM Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

SLM Corporation was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	24.19
Total ESG percentile	31.18
Environmental score	6.61
Environmental score percentile	7
Social score	14.48
Social score percentile	7
Governance score	16.61
Governance score percentile	7

SLM Corporation share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 8.76% of net profits

Recently SLM Corporation has paid out, on average, around 8.76% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.09% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), SLM Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 1.09% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In SLM Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $0.12 per share.

While SLM Corporation's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that SLM Corporation is investing more in its future growth.

SLM Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 15 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 3 December 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have SLM Corporation's shares ever split?

SLM Corporation's shares were split on a 2798:1000 basis on 1 May 2014. So if you had owned 1000 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2798 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your SLM Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 64.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for SLM Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted SLM Corporation's share price.

SLM Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, SLM Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $5.5569 up to $12.1916. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while SLM Corporation's is 1.3698. This would suggest that SLM Corporation's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

SLM Corporation overview

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 also offers retail deposit accounts, including certificates of deposit, money market deposit accounts, and high-yield savings accounts; omnibus accounts; and a consumer savings network that provides financial rewards on everyday purchases to help families save for college. 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.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of SLM Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.95% of SLM Corporation shares are held by insiders and 102.292% by institutions.

• How many people work for SLM Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 1,900 work at SLM Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for SLM Corporation?

  SLM Corporation's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is SLM Corporation based?

  SLM Corporation's address is: 300 Continental Drive, Newark, DE, United States, 19713

• What is SLM Corporation's ISIN number?

  SLM Corporation's international securities identification number is: US78442P1066

• What is SLM Corporation's CUSIP number?

  SLM Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 78442A109