Stride (NYSE:LRN) Shares Gap Up on Earnings Beat

Stride, Inc. (NYSE:LRN) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $58.20, but opened at $64.65. Stride shares last traded at $62.63, with a volume of 437,502 shares.

The company reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.13. Stride had a return on equity of 17.77% and a net margin of 8.80%. The firm had revenue of $520.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $507.89 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LRN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Stride from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Stride in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Stride from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Stride from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Stride in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Stride

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Stride by 4.6% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 29,018 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,830,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Stride in the 1st quarter valued at about $249,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Stride by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Cim LLC acquired a new position in Stride during the fourth quarter worth approximately $213,000. Finally, Cat Rock Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Stride in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,078,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.24% of the company’s stock.

Stride Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 4.52 and a quick ratio of 4.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a PE ratio of 15.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $60.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.16.

About Stride

Stride, Inc, a technology-based education service company, provides proprietary and third-party online curriculum, software systems, and educational services to facilitate individualized learning for students primarily in kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) in the United States and internationally.