Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL)

TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL – Get Rating) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 15,527 call options on the company. This is an increase of 86% compared to the typical volume of 8,339 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TAL Education Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of TAL Education Group by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 20,533,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,439,000 after buying an additional 60,574 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in TAL Education Group by 57.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 19,588,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,095,000 after purchasing an additional 7,134,675 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in TAL Education Group by 2.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,168,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,809,000 after purchasing an additional 365,665 shares during the last quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its stake in TAL Education Group by 27.3% during the third quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 15,634,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,237,000 after purchasing an additional 3,349,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in TAL Education Group by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 14,219,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,244,000 after purchasing an additional 634,951 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded TAL Education Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.60.

TAL Education Group Price Performance

NYSE TAL opened at $6.12 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.13 and a beta of -0.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $7.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $6.25. TAL Education Group has a 1-year low of $1.60 and a 1-year high of $10.45.

TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 19th. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $232.68 million during the quarter. TAL Education Group had a negative net margin of 15.81% and a negative return on equity of 5.27%. On average, analysts anticipate that TAL Education Group will post -0.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TAL Education Group Company Profile

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TAL Education Group operates as a holding company, which engages in the provision of after-school tutoring programs for primary and secondary school students. Its services are delivered through small classes, personalized premium services such as one-on-one tutoring, and online course offerings for primary and middle school students.