Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) provides retail and educational-support services to colleges and universities in the United States. Through its campus bookstores and digital platforms, the company supplies course materials, including new, used, rental and digital textbooks, as well as educational technology and related academic resources.

The company also sells general merchandise and campus essentials, such as school supplies, apparel, insignia merchandise, gifts and convenience products. Its offerings include programs designed to help institutions deliver course materials directly to students, along with bookstore management, e-commerce and other services intended to support campus retail operations.

Barnes & Noble Education was separated from Barnes & Noble, Inc. and became an independent public company in 2015. Its operations include Barnes & Noble College, which manages physical and online bookstores for higher-education institutions, and MBS Textbook Exchange, a provider of textbook distribution and related services. Michael Huseby serves as the company’s chief executive officer and executive chairman.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $11.99 to $12.56
• 50-Day Range: $10.50 to $12.93
• 52-Week Range: $5.90 to $14.75
• Volume: 202,037 shs
• Average Volume: 218,515 shs
• Market Capitalization: $433.58 million
• P/E Ratio: 19.54
• Dividend Yield: 2.56%
• Price Target: $17.25
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Barnes & Noble Education Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Barnes & Noble Education scored higher than 70% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 222nd out of 485 stocks in the consumer discretionary sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.5 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Barnes & Noble Education has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.25, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 2 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and 1 sell rating.

Upside Potential

Barnes & Noble Education has a consensus price target of $17.25, representing about 37.9% upside from its current price of $12.51.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Barnes & Noble Education has only been the subject of 2 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.3 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: N/A

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Barnes & Noble Education is 19.54, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.79.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Barnes & Noble Education is 19.54, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Discretionary sector average P/E ratio of about 45.07.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Barnes & Noble Education has a P/B Ratio of 1.46. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 1.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

5.53% of the float of Barnes & Noble Education has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Barnes & Noble Education has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 9.33.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Barnes & Noble Education has recently increased by 17.93%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Weak

Dividend Yield

Barnes & Noble Education pays a meaningful dividend of 2.56%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Barnes & Noble Education does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Barnes & Noble Education is 50.00%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.15

News Sentiment

Barnes & Noble Education has a news sentiment score of 1.15. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.51 average news sentiment score of Consumer Discretionary companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 3 news articles for Barnes & Noble Education this week, compared to 1 article on an average week.

Search Interest

2 people have searched for BNED on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 100% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

1 people have added Barnes & Noble Education to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.2 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Barnes & Noble Education insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $419,790.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

1.70% of the stock of Barnes & Noble Education is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

38.51% of the stock of Barnes & Noble Education is held by institutions.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 7/30 Dividend: 7/16/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 7/30 Dividend: 7/16/2026
• Dividend Payable: 7/30/2026
• Last Earnings: 9/08/2026
• Today: 10/11/2026
• Record date for 10/29 Dividend: 10/14/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 10/29 Dividend: 10/14/2026
• Dividend Payable: 10/29/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 12/22/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 4/30/2027

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: Specialty Retail
• Sub-Industry: Other Specialty Retail
• Current Symbol: NYSE:BNED
• CIK: 1634117
• Web: www.bned.com
• Phone: (908) 991-2665
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 3,613
• Year Founded: 1971

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Barnes & Noble Education: $17.25
• High Price Target: $18.50
• Low Price Target: $16.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +37.9%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.25
• Research Coverage: 4 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $0.64
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 19.54
• Forward P/E Ratio: 15.83
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $16.87 million
• Net Margins: 1.29%
• Pretax Margin: 1.61%
• Return on Equity: 8.77%
• Return on Assets: 2.66%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.44
• Current Ratio: 1.66
• Quick Ratio: 0.64

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.71 billion
• Price / Sales: 0.25
• Cash Flow: $1.71 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 7.31
• Book Value: $8.59 per share
• Price / Book: 1.46

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 34,670,000
• Free Float: 34,076,000
• Market Cap: $433.58 million
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.44