Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Barnes & Noble Education from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Barnes & Noble Education to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Northland Securities set a $18.50 price target on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Barnes & Noble Education from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.25.

Barnes & Noble Education Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of BNED stock opened at $13.01 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $450.67 million, a P/E ratio of 27.68 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.95. Barnes & Noble Education has a 1 year low of $5.90 and a 1 year high of $14.75.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 9th. The specialty retailer reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.03. Barnes & Noble Education had a net margin of 0.98% and a return on equity of 7.92%. The company had revenue of $267.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $267.55 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Barnes & Noble Education will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

Barnes & Noble Education Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 16th. Barnes & Noble Education’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.09%.

Insider Activity at Barnes & Noble Education

In related news, CFO Jason Snagusky sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.64, for a total transaction of $63,200.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 71,762 shares in the company, valued at $907,071.68. This trade represents a 6.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 10,513 shares of company stock worth $129,173 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Barnes & Noble Education

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 1,412.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,139 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 5,733 shares during the last quarter. Kanen Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 30.6% in the 1st quarter. Kanen Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,090,043 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $32,445,000 after acquiring an additional 724,683 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education by 96.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 104,205 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after purchasing an additional 51,190 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Barnes & Noble Education by 123.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 402,109 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,734,000 after acquiring an additional 221,936 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education during the second quarter worth approximately $344,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.51% of the company’s stock.

Barnes & Noble Education Company Profile

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc (NYSE: BNED) is a leading provider of educational products and services to the higher education community. The company operates retail campus bookstores under Barnes & Noble College, offering course materials, general merchandise, and digital content. In addition, Barnes & Noble Education delivers educational technology solutions through its digital learning platform and supplemental courseware.

Originally part of Barnes & Noble, Inc, the company completed its spin-off and initial public offering in February 2015 to focus exclusively on college retail and digital learning.