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BNBNED

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.

$BNED·$443M·Specialty Retail·Consumer Cyclical
$12.68+3.9%YTD+40.3%1Y+46.6%
Mentions · last 7 days
2026-08-27: 0 posts2026-08-28: 1 posts2026-08-29: 0 posts2026-08-30: 0 posts2026-08-31: 0 posts2026-09-01: 0 posts2026-09-02: 0 posts10%
Price updated 14h ago·X counts updated 3d ago
BNBNED
$BNEDBarnes & Noble Education, Inc.
$12.68+3.89%1 posts0%
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.

Comeback attemptAcceleratingAI verdict · as of 2026-09-04

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

College-bookstore operator up 47% in a year at 71% of range with First Day Complete platform expansion.

Barnes & Noble Education runs college and K-12 campus bookstores — a small ($443M) legacy retail name executing a real business-model turnaround via its 'First Day Complete' equitable-access textbook program.

  • Stock at $12.20, up ~40% year-to-date and ~47% over twelve months, sitting at 71% of the 52-week range and above the 200-day moving average — a solid uptrend.
  • EPS beats have been consistent — Q4 fiscal 2026 at $0.125 vs $0.07 expected (+79%), Q3 at $0.23 (no consensus available), Q2 at $-0.47 vs $-0.81 (+42%), Q1 at $-0.54 vs $0.12 (-550% miss — large seasonal quarter).
  • The strategic-growth signal: 'Barnes & Noble College First Day Complete Expands to 263 Campuses Representing More Than 1.43 Million Students' — real scale of the equitable-access textbook program.
  • Fundamentals reflect the transition: PE -45 (trailing loss), gross margin 19%, operating margin 3.6%, ROIC 8.8%, ROE -3.6%, FCF yield 1.5%, debt/equity 1.09 (moderate leverage).
  • Revenue is very seasonal ($278M-$644M range) — the fall term (Q2 fiscal) dominates.
  • Seeking Alpha's 'Buy On Strong Preliminary FY 2026 Results And Decent Outlook' captures the sell-side view.
  • Analyst forward estimates step from $0.57 EPS this year to $0.86 in 2027 — supportive growth.

Structural: 9.1M share float (very small), 'volume_zero' flag, beta 1.31 — thin and volatile.

What to watch: December 22 earnings ($0.07 EPS consensus), fall-term same-store-sales performance, additional First Day Complete campus additions, and any debt-refinancing updates.

On the calendar: 2026-12-22 earnings

no x sentimentvery small floatvolume zero

X sentiment

What the X crowd is saying right now — descriptive, summarised from the day’s posts.

Bullish sentiment7 posts analyzed · as of 2026-07-02

Barnes & Noble Education printed a strong quarter — return to profitability drove +15-20% intraday. Management raised 2026 guidance and guided to 16% EBITDA growth in FY27, with continued deleveraging and expanded first-investor-outreach efforts. The stock trades at ~5-6x FY27 EBITDA vs comps at 11-14x. Bulls flag +37-50% YTD, a 30% own-customer penetration with substantial expansion runway, and NYSE hosting BNED's 2026 Investor Day.

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.

Operates college and K-12 campus bookstores selling and renting physical and digital textbooks and publisher courseware.

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

Consumer discretionary spending patterns drive same-store sales; AI-enabled inventory management and personalization are differentiating omnichannel leaders. Back-to-school and holiday cadence are the near-term seasonality anchors.

What this means for $BNED

Partial — consumer discretionary / retail performance tracks consumer spending trends; Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.

Top industry ETF

$XRTSPDR S&P Retail ETF
+7.7%YTD
+0.7%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
Q2 2026Jul 9, 2026$0.13$0.07+78.6%
Q4 2025Mar 10, 2026$0.23——
Q4 2025Jan 20, 2026$-0.47$-0.81+42.0%
Q3 2025Nov 4, 2025$-0.54$0.12-550.0%
Next earningsTue, Dec 22·consensus EPS $0.07

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

4-year forecast · up to 1 analysts
FYRevenueRangeEPSRangeAnalysts
FY26$1.7B$1.7B – $1.7B$0.56$0.56 – $0.571
FY26$1.7B$1.7B – $1.8B$0.23$0.23 – $0.231
FY27$1.8B$1.8B – $1.8B$0.85$0.85 – $0.861
FY27$1.8B$1.8B – $1.8B$0.80$0.79 – $0.801

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.1.2×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.71%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.-1.6%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.+21.5%Latest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.

Float & profile

FloatTiny float · 9.1M shFree-float shares — the slice of issued stock actually available to trade. Lower buckets squeeze harder on a catalyst.Traded today3.0% 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.β1.315-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

SellJul 17Jason SnaguskyCFO5.0K sh$63KSellJul 10Jason SnaguskyCFO2.2K sh$26KSellJul 10Christopher NeumannEVP General Counsel, Secretary2.8K sh$32KSellJul 10Gary LusterSVP, Chief Accounting Officer1.1K sh$12KSellJul 7Toro 18 Holdings LlcDirector2.0K sh$20KSellJul 6Toro 18 Holdings LlcDirector17.0K sh$188KSellJul 2Jason SnaguskyCFO2.2K sh$28KSellJul 1Jonathan SharCEO67.9K sh$871KSellMar 13Jonathan SharCEO81 sh$657SellMar 13Jason SnaguskyCFO17 sh$138
+ 10 other (10 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
Free, forever. No credit card.

SEC filings

Material 8-K, 13D, S-3, and 424B5 events from the last 180 days — the filings that actually move the price.

Recent material filings

SC 13D/AActivist amendmentJul 8SC 13D/A
AI summary

Toro 18 Holdings LLC, Immersion Corp, William C. Martin, and Eric Singer filed SC 13D/A Amendment No. 2 for Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (BNED) as of July 6, 2026. As a reporting group, they beneficially own approximately 11.2-11.4 million shares of BNED common stock, representing 32.7-33.1% of the class. Immersion Corp is identified as a member of the activist group alongside individual investors. This concentrated ~33% position constitutes a controlling or near-controlling activist stake in BNED, signaling meaningful governance influence.

8-KPress release / Reg FDJun 248-K — Item 2.02: Earnings release · Item 7.01: Press release / Reg FD · Item 8.01: Other event
AI summary

Barnes & Noble Education issued preliminary unaudited financial results for the fiscal year ended May 2, 2026, and announced a virtual Investor Day to be held June 25, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, focused on First Day® affordability programs and omnichannel campus retail. No specific financial figures are in the excerpt. Body unavailable — preliminary financial results are in the attached Exhibit 99.1 press release.

8-KShareholder voteMar 168-K — Item 5.07: Shareholder vote
+ 7 other (2 proxys · 2 earnings 8-Ks · 1 ARS · 1 10-K) in window

Recent news

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

Should Value Investors Buy Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) Stock?zacks.com·2d agoAre Investors Undervaluing Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) Right Now?zacks.com·18d agoBarnes & Noble College First Day Complete® Expands to 263 Campuses Representing More Than 1.43 Million Studentsglobenewswire.com·18d agoBarnes & Noble Education Reports Full-Year Fiscal 2026 Financial Resultsglobenewswire.com·58d agoBarnes & Noble Education: Buy On Strong Preliminary FY 2026 Results And Decent Outlookseekingalpha.com·70d 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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