Barnes & Noble Education Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:BNED)

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 2,852 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 192% compared to the typical volume of 976 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Covestor Ltd acquired a new stake in Barnes & Noble Education in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. State of Wyoming grew its position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education by 489.3% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 15,304 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 12,707 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education by 64.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 15,628 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 6,137 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Barnes & Noble Education during the 1st quarter worth about $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 38.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BNED has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Barnes & Noble Education from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Craig Hallum reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $1.25 price target (down from $3.00) on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research note on Thursday, January 11th.

Barnes & Noble Education Stock Performance

Shares of BNED stock opened at $0.24 on Thursday. Barnes & Noble Education has a 1 year low of $0.18 and a 1 year high of $2.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market cap of $12.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.15 and a beta of 1.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $0.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $0.99.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The specialty retailer reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Barnes & Noble Education had a negative return on equity of 51.52% and a negative net margin of 5.22%. The firm had revenue of $456.67 million for the quarter.

Barnes & Noble Education Company Profile

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions in the United States. It operates through Retail and Wholesale segments. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com.