TAL Education Group Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:TAL)

TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 11,648 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 119% compared to the average volume of 5,321 put options.

TAL Education Group Trading Down 3.7 %

TAL traded down $0.44 on Tuesday, hitting $11.32. 8,951,829 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,023,089. The firm has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -102.91 and a beta of 0.15. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $12.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.42. TAL Education Group has a one year low of $5.09 and a one year high of $15.52.

TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by ($0.02). TAL Education Group had a negative return on equity of 1.93% and a negative net margin of 5.30%. The company had revenue of $373.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $330.96 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TAL Education Group will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TAL Education Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TAL. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of TAL Education Group by 0.3% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 20,533,691 shares of the company's stock worth $101,439,000 after purchasing an additional 60,574 shares in the last quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC raised its holdings in TAL Education Group by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 17,771,371 shares of the company's stock valued at $161,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,177,640 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of TAL Education Group by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,168,022 shares of the company's stock valued at $84,809,000 after buying an additional 365,665 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in TAL Education Group by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,136,868 shares of the company's stock worth $147,007,000 after purchasing an additional 2,710,826 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in TAL Education Group by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,629,987 shares of the company's stock worth $37,692,000 after purchasing an additional 358,484 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 37.79% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TAL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of TAL Education Group from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. TheStreet raised shares of TAL Education Group from a "d+" rating to a "c-" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of TAL Education Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, TAL Education Group has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $12.37.

About TAL Education Group

TAL Education Group provides K-12 after-school tutoring services in the People's Republic of China. The company offers tutoring services to K-12 students covering various academic subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, political science, English, and Chinese.