Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Posted by George Bondi on Aug 9th, 2026

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

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

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on BNED

Barnes & Noble Education Stock Performance

Shares of BNED opened at $12.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.71 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $11.89 and a 200-day moving average of $10.16. The company has a market cap of $442.66 million, a PE ratio of 27.19 and a beta of 1.27. Barnes & Noble Education has a one year low of $5.90 and a one year high of $14.75.

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 9th. The specialty retailer reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $267.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $267.55 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Barnes & Noble Education will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barnes & Noble Education Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Jason Snagusky sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.64, for a total value of $63,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 71,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $907,071.68. This represents a 6.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have 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

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kanen Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Barnes & Noble Education by 0.7% in the first quarter. Kanen Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,423,782 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $30,232,000 after purchasing an additional 23,800 shares during the last quarter. Windward Management LP bought a new position in shares of Barnes & Noble Education during the fourth quarter valued at about $15,623,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Barnes & Noble Education by 7.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,027,599 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $10,225,000 after buying an additional 67,365 shares during the last quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 573,992 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 394,630 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 38.51% of the company’s stock.

About Barnes & Noble Education

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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.