Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Put Options (NYSE:EDU)

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE:EDU) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,855 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 115% compared to the typical volume of 862 put options.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Price Performance

Shares of EDU stock opened at $46.79 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.91 and a beta of 0.44. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.93. New Oriental Education & Technology Group has a 12 month low of $44.46 and a 12 month high of $98.20.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. New Oriental Education & Technology Group had a net margin of 8.13% and a return on equity of 9.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that New Oriental Education & Technology Group will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of New Oriental Education & Technology Group

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 37.8% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,000 after buying an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group in the 4th quarter valued at $272,000. Ariose Capital Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group during the 4th quarter valued at $5,955,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 192.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 826,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,703,000 after purchasing an additional 543,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC raised its holdings in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC now owns 7,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EDU has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded New Oriental Education & Technology Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $83.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered New Oriental Education & Technology Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Macquarie cut New Oriental Education & Technology Group from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $44.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised New Oriental Education & Technology Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.40.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Company Profile

New Oriental Education & Technology Group, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of private educational services. It operates through the following segments: Educational Services and Test Preparation Courses, Private Label Products and Livestreaming E-Commerce, Overseas Study Consulting Services, and Educational Materials and Distribution.