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BNBNED

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.

Hot onWhy it's trendingX mentions rising faster than the marketMoving on elevated volumeBacked by solid revenue growth
$BNED·$461M·Specialty Retail·Consumer Cyclical
$13.81+2.8%YTD+46.1%1Y+14.2%
Mentions · last 7 days
2026-06-19: 0 posts2026-06-20: 1 posts2026-06-21: 0 posts2026-06-22: 3 posts2026-06-23: 1 posts2026-06-24: 6 posts2026-06-25: 23 posts34
Price updated 1m ago·X counts updated 20h ago
BNBNED
$BNEDBarnes & Noble Education, Inc.
$13.81+2.83%34 posts
AI analysisFundamentalsVoices on X
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AI verdict & sentimentAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Today's AI verdict on what's driving $BNED, plus how loud the X conversation is and which way it's leaning.

AI analysis

TickerTalks’ read on the fundamentals and what’s driving the move.

Proven numbersAcceleratingAI verdict · as of 2026-06-26

The move is getting stronger, with heavier trading behind it.

Barnes & Noble Education at 97% of range with 2.55x average volume — small-cap college-textbook/services name catching fresh interest.

Barnes & Noble Education operates campus bookstores, digital textbook delivery, and academic services at hundreds of US colleges and universities. The stock has rallied 46% YTD on operational stabilization, putting it at 97% of 52-week range with elevated volume.

  • Growth is back: Q3 (January) revenue grew 10.5% YoY to $515M with operating margin 3% — that's a solid back-to-school recovery from prior weakness.
  • The seasonal cadence is steep: Q2 (November) was the big quarter at $644M with 6.3% op margin — that's the back-to-school cycle compressing revenue into one quarter.
  • Volume profile is the bullish signal: 2.55x average daily volume over 30 days at 97% of 52-week range — that's institutional accumulation through the breakout.
  • Earnings beats history is thin: only one data point at 0% — limited disclosure cadence is typical for sub-$500M cap turnarounds.
  • No X sentiment in the bundle — the equity is following operational execution and the small-cap services cycle rather than social rotation.

If July 1 earnings confirm continued back-to-school comp growth and operating margin clearly improving above 5% on a normalized basis, the multiple expansion holds and the stock works toward $18. A comp deceleration or any digital-textbook share-loss commentary compresses the multiple back toward $9.

What to watch: July 1 earnings — continued back-to-school comp growth and operating margin clearly improving above 5% on a normalized basis is the win condition; comp deceleration or digital-textbook share-loss commentary compresses the multiple back toward $9.

On the calendar: 2026-07-01 — earnings

Read the AI verdict + X sentiment for $BNED

  • One-line verdict on what's driving the move — fundamentals, momentum, both, or an event
  • Next dated catalyst when there is one (earnings, deal closing, activist clock)
  • X crowd read with bullish/bearish call + post volume
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What it does

Plain-English summary of the business — what they sell and how they make money.

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions primarily in the United States. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. In addition, it offers First Day and First Day Complete access programs; and general merchandise, including collegiate and athletic apparel, school spirit products, lifestyle and wellness products, technology products, supplies, graduation products, and convenience items. Further, the company sources, sells, and distributes new and used textbooks; and sells hardware and a software suite of applications that provides inventory management and point-of-sale solutions to college bookstores. Additionally, it offers direct-to-student services. It operates physical college and university bookstores; virtual bookstores; True Spirit e apparel and spirit shop e-commerce websites; pop-up retail locations; customized cafés and stand-alone convenience stores; and a media channel for brands targeting the college demographic. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Industry overviewAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Where Specialty Retail sits in its cycle right now — and what that implies for $BNED.

Specialty Retail · Consumer Cyclical

Agentic commerce (AI agents ordering autonomously for consumers) is the medium-term structural disruptor — Amazon's $200B AI infrastructure commitment and AI shopping agent deployment shifts purchase decisions from browsing to autonomous fulfillment, bypassing traditional retail discovery. Near-term, consumer trade-down sustains value-format players while discretionary names face traffic headwinds.

Top industry ETF

$XRTSPDR S&P Retail ETF
+2.1%YTD
+14.5%1Y

Fundamentals & catalyst

Profitability, valuation, and the next earnings event — at a glance, with rule-of-thumb signals.

Key ratios

P/E
-44.8How much investors are paying per dollar of profit the company actually earned in the last 12 months. Lower means the stock looks cheaper relative to earnings.~15–25 is typical for the S&P 500; high-growth names trade 30+; hyper-growth or speculative can be 100+ or negative.
ROIC
8.8%What percentage return the business earns on every dollar of capital (equity + debt) deployed in operations. The cleanest measure of business quality.Above ~15% is high-quality; consistently above 25% suggests a real moat. Below the company's cost of capital is value-destroying.
Op margin
3.6%Operating profit (after sales, marketing, R&D, and overhead but before interest and taxes) as a percentage of revenue. The clearest view of how well the underlying business is run.Mature business above 20% is healthy; software businesses can run 30%+; commodity / retail businesses operate in single digits.
FCF yield
1.5%Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capex) divided by the company's market cap. The cash-on-cash return you'd get owning the whole business at today's price.Above ~5% is attractive; below ~2% means you're paying up for growth. Capital-light businesses (software) run higher than capital-heavy ones (utilities).
P/S
0.3Same idea as P/E but per dollar of revenue. Useful for companies that aren't profitable yet, where P/E is meaningless.Under ~2 is cheap; software / SaaS often runs 8–15; well above 20 implies the market is pricing in very high future growth.
ROE
-3.6%Net income as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Similar to ROIC but counts only the equity side.Above 20% is strong, but can be inflated by leverage — a heavily indebted company can show high ROE with weak underlying ROIC.
Gross margin
19.1%Revenue minus the direct cost of producing what was sold, as a percentage of revenue. The first read on whether the product is structurally profitable.Software / SaaS is typically 70%+; consumer goods 30–50%; commodity / hardware businesses can be under 20%.
D/E
1.1Total debt divided by shareholders' equity. Measures how much the business runs on borrowed money versus owner capital.Under 1 is conservative; 1–2 is typical for mature businesses; over 2 is leveraged and more sensitive to interest rates.

Past earnings

QuarterReportedActualEstimateSurprise
Q1 2026Jun 24, 2026$-0.16$-0.160.0%
Q4 2025Mar 10, 2026$0.23——
Q4 2025Jan 20, 2026$-0.47——
Q1 2025May 3, 2025$-0.68——
Next earningsWed, Jul 1

Quarterly trend

QuarterRevenueYoYGrossOpEPSFCF
Q3 FY26$515.1M+10.5%17.2%3.1%$0.19$-33.1M
Q2 FY26$644.4M+7.0%20.1%6.3%$0.73$61.9M
Q1 FY26$288.2M+9.4%19.2%-8.0%$-0.54$-71.3M
Q4 FY25$278.3M+18.0%20.3%10.2%$-0.68$49.5M

Forward consensus

2-year forecast · up to 1 analysts
FYRevenueRangeEPSRangeAnalysts
FY26$1.7B$1.7B – $1.7B$0.23$0.23 – $0.231
FY27$1.8B$1.8B – $1.8B$0.40$0.40 – $0.401

Setup & momentum

Volume, range, and moving-average position — the technical setup driving short-term moves.

Right now

Vol vs 30dToday's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.2.5×Today's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.
52w rangeWhere the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.97%Where the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.
vs 50d MALatest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.+28.8%Latest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.
vs 200d MALatest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.+45.6%Latest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.

Float & profile

FloatTiny float · 9.0M shFree-float shares — the slice of issued stock actually available to trade. Lower buckets squeeze harder on a catalyst.Traded today8.5% of floatToday's volume as a percent of the free float. Above 5% on a single day is unusually high turnover for the available share count.β1.365-year weekly beta vs the S&P 500. Above 1.5 means the stock typically moves more than the index; below 0.8 moves less.

Insider activity

Recent open-market buys and sells by officers and directors — flagged when multiple insiders cluster.

Recent transactions

SellMar 13Jonathan SharCEO81 sh$657SellMar 13Jason SnaguskyCFO17 sh$138
+ 6 other (6 awards) in window

See when $BNED insiders are putting their own money in

  • Real-time open-market buys and sells from Form 4 filings
  • Cluster-buy detection when multiple insiders pile in at once
  • 30 / 60 / 180-day windows so you can spot building conviction
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Recent news

Latest headlines from major outlets, sourced and timestamped — context for whatever just moved.

Why Barnes & Noble Education Stock Jumped 20% Todayfool.com·1d agoBarnes & Noble Education, Inc. (BNED) Analyst/Investor Day Transcriptseekingalpha.com·1d agoNYSE Content Update: Doncasters Raises $919 Million Ahead of NYSE Trading Debutprnewswire.com·1d agoBarnes & Noble Education Announces Preliminary Full-Year Fiscal 2026 Unaudited Financial Resultsglobenewswire.com·2d agoBarnes & Noble College Launches Enhanced Gift Card Program to Elevate the Campus Store Experienceglobenewswire.com·39d ago

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Voices on X · last 7 days

No standout posts about $BNED on X in the last 7 days.

TickerTalks is a research tool, not financial advice. We surface social-attention data; we do not make stock recommendations. Past attention is not predictive of future price movements.

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