Stride (NYSE:LRN) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Stride (NYSE:LRN) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on LRN. Barrington Research reduced their target price on Stride from $125.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Stride from $93.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 5th. William Blair cut Stride from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Stride from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.25.

Stride Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE LRN opened at $80.53 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.70. Stride has a 52-week low of $60.61 and a 52-week high of $103.67. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 2.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Stride (NYSE:LRN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 20th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $639.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $612.25 million. Stride had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 22.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Stride will post 9.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Stride

In other Stride news, Director Dylan Haggart acquired 792 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $78.52 per share, with a total value of $62,187.84. Following the purchase, the director owned 1,899,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,164,679.56. The trade was a 0.04% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 154,988 shares of company stock worth $12,240,185. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of Stride during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,485,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Stride by 61.0% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,277,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $200,799,000 after acquiring an additional 862,849 shares during the last quarter. JB Capital Partners LP purchased a new position in Stride in the second quarter worth approximately $3,018,400. Kendall Capital Management purchased a new position in Stride in the second quarter worth approximately $2,294,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Stride during the second quarter worth $49,350,000. 98.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Stride

Stride, Inc is an education technology company that provides online and blended learning programs for K-12 students. The company partners with public school districts, charter schools and other education organizations to deliver digital curricula, instructional software, teaching support and student services. Its offerings are designed to support full-time virtual schools, supplemental courses and traditional schools incorporating online learning.

Stride also provides career-focused education through programs that combine academic instruction with career exploration, technical training and industry-aligned learning opportunities.