Stride (NYSE:LRN) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Stride, Inc. (NYSE:LRN) shares gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after William Blair downgraded the stock from an outperform rating to a market perform rating. The stock had previously closed at $97.71, but opened at $90.91. Stride shares last traded at $87.4760, with a volume of 241,251 shares changing hands.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Stride in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Stride in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Stride in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $109.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Stride

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of LRN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Stride by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,883,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,090,000 after buying an additional 340,838 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Stride by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 40,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,622,000 after buying an additional 10,541 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Stride during the fourth quarter valued at about $988,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Stride by 61.0% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,277,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,799,000 after acquiring an additional 862,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maxi Investments CY Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Stride during the fourth quarter worth about $1,000,000. 98.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Stride Stock Down 3.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 6.14 and a current ratio of 6.21. The company has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.47.

Stride (NYSE:LRN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $2.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $629.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $629.69 million. Stride had a net margin of 12.15% and a return on equity of 25.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Stride, Inc. will post 8.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stride Company Profile

Stride, Inc (NYSE:LRN) is a technology-driven education company that designs and delivers online learning solutions for students and adult learners. Through long-term partnerships with state-authorized public school districts, Stride operates virtual academies that serve K-12 students across the United States. The company’s blended-learning model combines digital curriculum, live teaching support and data analytics to personalize instruction and monitor student progress.

In addition to its K-12 offerings, Stride provides a portfolio of career and workforce readiness programs under its Stride Career Prep division.