Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) Share Price Crosses Above 50 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc (NYSE:BNED)’s share price crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a fifty day moving average of $11.75 and traded as high as $13.11. Barnes & Noble Education shares last traded at $12.9270, with a volume of 214,805 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on BNED shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Barnes & Noble Education from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Needham & Company LLC upgraded Barnes & Noble Education from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, June 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Barnes & Noble Education to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Barnes & Noble Education from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Northland Securities set a $18.50 price target on shares of Barnes & Noble Education in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.25.

Barnes & Noble Education Stock Up 0.2%

The firm has a market cap of $447.79 million, a P/E ratio of 27.50 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 9th. The specialty retailer reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.03. Barnes & Noble Education had a return on equity of 7.92% and a net margin of 0.98%.The firm had revenue of $267.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $267.55 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Barnes & Noble Education, Inc will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barnes & Noble Education Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 16th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 16th. Barnes & Noble Education’s payout ratio is 68.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Jason Snagusky sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.64, for a total transaction of $63,200.00. Following the transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,513 shares of company stock worth $129,173. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Barnes & Noble Education

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BNED. Windward Management LP bought a new position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education in the 4th quarter worth about $15,623,000. Kanen Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 30.6% during the first quarter. Kanen Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,090,043 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $32,445,000 after acquiring an additional 724,683 shares during the period. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its holdings in Barnes & Noble Education by 186.5% in the fourth quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 881,799 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $8,104,000 after acquiring an additional 573,992 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Barnes & Noble Education by 323.8% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 516,521 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $6,079,000 after acquiring an additional 394,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 190.2% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 508,899 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,677,000 after acquiring an additional 333,567 shares during the period. 38.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Barnes & Noble Education

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.