Student loan provider Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, with sales flat year on year at $401.1 million. Its GAAP profit of $0.29 per share was 34.2% below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Sallie Mae (SLM) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Net Interest Income: $332.8 million vs analyst estimates of $345.8 million
- Revenue: $401.1 million vs analyst estimates of $408.3 million (flat year on year, 1.8% miss)
- Pre-tax Profit: $80.46 million (20.1% margin)
- EPS (GAAP): $0.29 vs analyst expectations of $0.44 (34.2% miss)
- EPS (GAAP) guidance for the full year is $3.15 at the midpoint, roughly in line with what analysts were expecting
- Market Capitalization: $4.76 billion
Company Overview
Originally created as a government-sponsored enterprise before privatizing in 2004, Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is a financial services company that provides private education loans, savings products, and educational resources to help students and families pay for college.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Unfortunately, Sallie Mae struggled to consistently increase demand as its $1.96 billion of revenue for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This was below our standards and suggests it’s a low quality business.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes and market returns. Just like its five-year trend, Sallie Mae’s revenue over the last two years was flat, suggesting it is in a slump. 
Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers because they were impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.
This quarter, Sallie Mae missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 0.6% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $401.1 million of revenue.
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Key Takeaways from Sallie Mae’s Q2 Results
We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its net interest income missed and its EPS fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 3.5% to $23.34 immediately following the results.
Sallie Mae’s latest earnings report disappointed. One quarter doesn’t define a company’s quality, so let’s explore whether the stock is a buy at the current price. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
