Coursera (NYSE:COUR) Stock Rating Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. KeyCorp lowered Coursera from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Coursera from $6.50 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Coursera from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $8.00 to $5.00 in a report on Friday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Coursera from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Coursera from $7.00 to $4.50 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Coursera presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.36.

Coursera Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Coursera stock opened at $3.73 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $984.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $5.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.67. Coursera has a 1-year low of $3.45 and a 1-year high of $8.89.

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $376.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.52 million. Coursera had a negative net margin of 14.35% and a positive return on equity of 3.47%. Coursera’s quarterly revenue was up 94.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Coursera will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Coursera news, CEO Gregory Hart sold 10,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.59, for a total transaction of $36,994.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,528,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,488,025.82. This represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Pale Fire Capital Se bought 1,000,000 shares of Coursera stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $4.61 per share, for a total transaction of $4,610,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 28,806,415 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,797,573.15. The trade was a 3.60% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 29,752 shares of company stock valued at $141,853. 16.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Coursera

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Coursera in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,887,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Coursera during the 2nd quarter worth $9,848,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in Coursera during the second quarter worth about $1,579,000. Readystate Asset Management LP lifted its holdings in Coursera by 259.2% during the second quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 4,027,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,713,000 after acquiring an additional 2,906,101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Coursera during the second quarter worth about $3,262,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.55% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Coursera

Here are the key news stories impacting Coursera this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Coursera’s latest reported quarter exceeded expectations, with EPS of $0.21 versus $0.18 expected and revenue of $376.7 million versus $368.5 million expected. Revenue rose sharply year over year, though the company remained loss-making on a net-margin basis.
• Positive Sentiment: A market roundup said Coursera shares had “skyrocketed,” but did not explain the catalyst. Read the article
• Neutral Sentiment: Goldman Sachs assigned Coursera a “Hold” rating, signaling a wait-and-see stance rather than a strong near-term endorsement. Read the article
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst expectations have weakened: Coursera’s consensus price target was reportedly cut nearly 30% to $5.67. Other recent reports cited lower targets and rating downgrades, including a shift by JPMorgan to Neutral. Read the article
• Negative Sentiment: KeyCorp’s estimates project a loss for FY2027, despite a small expected profit in FY2026, raising concern about the durability of profitability.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Gregory Hart sold 10,305 shares for about $37,000. The sale reduced his direct holdings by 0.67%, and he still owns more than 1.5 million shares, so its significance may be limited. Read the article

Coursera Company Profile

Coursera, Inc is an online learning platform that provides access to courses, professional certificates, guided projects, and degree programs. The company works with universities, colleges, and industry partners to offer content in areas such as business, technology, data science, computer science, and personal development.

Coursera serves individual learners, businesses, governments, and academic institutions in countries around the world. Its enterprise and government offerings support employee training, workforce development, and large-scale education initiatives, while its consumer platform allows learners to enroll in individual courses or broader credential and degree programs.

Coursera was founded in 2012 by computer-science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller.