Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 3,876 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 238% compared to the average daily volume of 1,148 put options.

Institutional Trading of Barnes & Noble Education

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Belvedere Trading LLC purchased a new position in Barnes & Noble Education during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC grew its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 258.6% during the 3rd quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 46,506 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 33,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenhaven Road Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Barnes & Noble Education by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Road Investment Management L.P. now owns 5,256,342 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $7,832,000 after acquiring an additional 90,003 shares in the last quarter. 38.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BNED has been the topic of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Craig Hallum reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $1.25 price target (down previously from $3.00) on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Barnes & Noble Education in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating for the company.

Barnes & Noble Education Trading Up 10.2 %

Shares of NYSE:BNED traded up $0.02 on Monday, hitting $0.24. The company had a trading volume of 2,518,771 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,494,894. Barnes & Noble Education has a 1 year low of $0.18 and a 1 year high of $2.26. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $0.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) last posted its 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 net margin of 5.22% and a negative return on equity of 51.52%. The company 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.