At a glance
SLM Corp is worth $3.24B, about 5 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 7.3% to $1.98B in fiscal 2025, with 37.5% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 1.8% a year. It pays a 2.93% dividend yield, and returned $3.69B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −35.9% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +1.9% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 47.3% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 31.9% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 9 months and 16 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
SLM Corp, better known as Sallie Mae, is a consumer bank built around private student loans: education loans for students and families that no state or federal government makes, insures or guarantees. The loans mainly fill the gap between a school's cost and what savings, scholarships, grants and federal aid cover. The main product is the Smart Option Student Loan. SLM also offers six loans for graduate programs such as law and medical school, and launched a pilot-training loan in 2025. SLM markets through financial aid offices at more than 2,100 colleges and online.
Sallie Mae Bank, a Utah-regulated industrial bank, funds the loans mainly with online high-yield savings, money market accounts and certificates of deposit. Most revenue is net interest income: the gap between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits and other borrowing. In fiscal 2025, that was about $1.50 billion of roughly $1.98 billion in revenue; the other $483 million was noninterest income. SLM originated about $7.4 billion of private student loans in 2025, up 6%, and held $20.3 billion as of December 31, 2025.
The 10-K gives no clean revenue split by product, segment or region. Lending peaks before the fall semester. In 2025, SLM announced its first private credit partnership: it sells loans to a partner but keeps servicing them for ongoing fees.
Price history
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SLM -35.9% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $375.5M, down 31.2% from a year earlier, and net income was $-32.3M (-123.7%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $1.98B (+7.3% year over year; +1.8% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 37.5% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +1.8% watch |
|---|---|
| Return on equity | 30.4% good |
| Net income / revenue | 37.5% good |
| Deposits | $20.76B |
| Loans | $20.63B |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $1.81B | $880.7M | — |
| FY2021 | $2.03B | $1.16B | — |
| FY2022 | $1.82B | $469.0M | — |
| FY2023 | $1.81B | $581.4M | — |
| FY2024 | $1.85B | $608.3M | — |
| FY2025 | $1.98B | $744.8M | — |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $3.24B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 5.1 |
| Dividend yield | 2.93% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
SLM’s market value went from $4.72B at the end of 2016 to $3.24B on Oct 28, 2026, down 31%; since the end of 2025 it is down 41%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $3.24B | -41.0% |
| 2025 | $5.49B | -6.2% |
| 2024 | $5.86B | +35.4% |
| 2023 | $4.33B | +4.2% |
| 2022 | $4.15B | -28.0% |
| 2021 | $5.77B | +24.0% |
| 2020 | $4.65B | +23.6% |
| 2019 | $3.76B | +3.9% |
| 2018 | $3.62B | -25.8% |
| 2017 | $4.88B | +3.4% |
| 2016 | $4.72B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLM price data to Oct 28, 2026 | -33.4% | -35.9% | +13.7% | +1.9% | +11.2% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | -33.4% |
| 2025 | -0.2% |
| 2024 | +47.3% |
| 2023 | +18.6% |
| 2022 | -13.4% |
| 2021 | +60.5% |
| 2020 | +40.9% |
| 2019 | +8.6% |
| 2018 | -26.5% |
| 2017 | +2.5% |
| 2016 | +69.0% |
| 2015 | -36.0% |
| 2014 | +10.6% |
| 2013 | +57.5% |
| 2012 | +32.2% |
| 2011 | +8.7% |
| 2010 | +11.7% |
| 2009 | +26.6% |
| 2008 | -55.8% |
| 2007 | -58.5% |
| 2006 | -10.6% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 93.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 93.5%, back to its old high 143.6 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 46% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 47.3%, back to its old high 8.8 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 19.7% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 31.9%, back to its old high 15.9 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 0 sales ($0.00).
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| FMR LLC | 8.9% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | 6.6% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Brave Warrior Advisors, LLC | 6.29% | Sep 30, 2025 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.09% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 4.91% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Massachusetts Financial Services Company | 4.8% | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Boston Partners | 4.76% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Capital Research Global Investors | 2.8% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| BARROW HANLEY MEWHINNEY & STRAUSS LLC | 2.64% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| First Trust Portfolios L.P. | 0.71% | Mar 31, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in SLM
| RSMC Rockefeller U.S. Small-Mid Cap ETF | 2.99% |
| SCAP Infrastructure Capital Small Cap Income ETF | 2.54% |
| FCUS Pinnacle Focused Opportunities ETF | 2.31% |
| SYLD Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF | 1.42% |
| PFI Invesco Dorsey Wright Financial Momentum ETF | 1.36% |
| MYLD Cambria Micro and SmallCap Shareholder Yield ETF | 0.97% |
| LSAF LeaderShares AlphaFactor US Core Equity ETF | 0.96% |
| AVUV Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF | 0.85% |
What could go wrong
- Heavy reliance on one product line. SLM's core products are concentrated in private student loans. Tougher competition, weaker demand or any setback in this one market would hit nearly its whole business at once.
- Government policy could shrink demand. Federal and state proposals aimed at the student loan industry create political risk. Changes to federal student aid, or new ways for families to pay for college, could reduce demand for SLM's loans.
- Borrowers may refinance with rivals. When borrowers refinance or consolidate with another lender, SLM's loans are paid off early and the interest it expected to earn is lost. Prepayments also make interest-rate risk harder to manage.
- Defaults rise when the economy weakens. SLM bears the full credit risk on its loans. As of December 31, 2025, 4.0% of loans in repayment were 30-plus days late. A weaker economy could raise defaults beyond what SLM has set aside.
- New loan-sale model is untested. SLM describes its partnership model, selling loans to a partner while keeping the servicing fees, as new and untested. Buybacks also rely partly on selling loans at attractive prices, which may not always be possible.
- Funding depends on online savers. Most funding comes from online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit. Paying more to keep those savers, or losing them, could raise costs and squeeze available cash.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Shareholder vote results
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Major agreement signed; Other company announcement
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
For income and retirement investors
SLM's regular dividend rose from $0.12 a share in fiscal 2020 to $0.52 in fiscal 2025, about 34% a year. It was flat at $0.44 in 2022 and 2023, so the streak of increases is two years. Fiscal 2025 dividends took about 14.5% of net income, and the dividend yield was 2.93% as of October 28, 2026. Buybacks matter more: from fiscal 2021 through 2025, SLM spent about $3.2 billion on repurchases versus $482 million on dividends. The share count fell about 35% from January 2022 to September 2026.
Downturns have hit the stock hard. It fell 93.5% in the 2008 financial crisis, before the 2014 split from Navient, and needed about 12 years to recover. It lost 47.3% in the 2020 COVID crash and 31.9% in the 2022 bear market. After a loss in the quarter ended September 30, 2026, the shares were down 33.4% for 2026 through October 28. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does Sallie Mae make money?
Mostly from interest on private student loans. SLM Corp's bank, Sallie Mae Bank, lends to students and families. It funds those loans mainly with online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, plus bonds backed by pools of its loans. The gap between interest earned and interest paid, called net interest income, was about $1.50 billion of roughly $1.98 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue. The other $483 million was noninterest income. A new partnership model adds fees for servicing loans SLM sells.
Does SLM raise its dividend every year?
Not every year. SLM's regular dividend rose from $0.12 a share in fiscal 2020 to $0.52 in fiscal 2025, but it stayed at $0.44 in both 2022 and 2023. That left its streak of annual increases at two years through fiscal 2025. Dividends took about 14.5% of fiscal 2025 net income, a modest share. The dividend yield was 2.93% as of October 28, 2026. The 10-K warns that limits on dividends from Sallie Mae Bank to its parent could restrict SLM's dividends and buybacks.
Why did SLM stock fall in October 2026?
The drop followed weak quarterly results. SLM released them on October 22, 2026: for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, it posted a net loss of about $32 million, versus a profit a year earlier, and revenue fell 31.2%. The shares lost 22.4% in the week to October 28, 2026. Their price-to-earnings ratio (share price divided by yearly earnings per share) was about 5.1 that day, but that uses fiscal 2025 earnings from before the loss.
Is Sallie Mae the same company as Navient?
No. SLM Corp, which operates as Sallie Mae, was formed in late 2013 and separated from the company now called Navient on April 30, 2014. Navient, which works in education loan management, consolidation loans and business processing, kept all pre-split assets and liabilities except those SLM explicitly retained. SLM is a consumer bank that makes and services private student loans. Its 10-K lists risks tied to the split, including indemnification claims (demands that one side cover the other's losses) and Navient's creditworthiness.
Do Sallie Mae borrowers pay back their loans?
Most do. As of December 31, 2025, 4.0% of SLM's private student loans in repayment were at least 30 days late. In 2025, net charge-offs (loans written off as lost, minus recoveries) were 2.15% of average loans in repayment. To limit losses, SLM leans on cosigners: about 92.8% of its 2025 loans had one. The average FICO credit score, using the higher of the borrower's or cosigner's, was 755. SLM bears the full credit risk on the loans it holds.