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

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 2,852 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 192% compared to the average daily volume of 976 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on BNED. Craig Hallum reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $1.25 price objective (down previously from $3.00) on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Barnes & Noble Education from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 28th.

Institutional Trading of Barnes & Noble Education

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BNED. Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP raised its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 31.8% during the second quarter. Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP now owns 23,120 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 5,577 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its position in 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 364,734 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $638,000 after purchasing an additional 6,535 shares during the last quarter. Walleye Capital LLC boosted its position in Barnes & Noble Education by 12.4% in the second quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 65,866 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $193,000 after buying an additional 7,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education during the first quarter worth $27,000. 38.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Barnes & Noble Education Trading Down 64.3 %

BNED opened at $0.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.16 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Barnes & Noble Education has a twelve month low of $0.18 and a twelve month high of $2.26. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $0.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $0.99.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) last posted 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.

About Barnes & Noble Education

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.