New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) Downgraded by Macquarie to Underperform

New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) was downgraded by equities researchers at Macquarie from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $44.00 price objective on the stock, down from their previous price objective of $79.00. Macquarie’s price target indicates a potential downside of 5.69% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on EDU. Morgan Stanley set a $83.00 target price on shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded New Oriental Education & Technology Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut New Oriental Education & Technology Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $85.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.40.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Price Performance

New Oriental Education & Technology Group stock opened at $46.66 on Wednesday. New Oriental Education & Technology Group has a 52-week low of $44.46 and a 52-week high of $98.20. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $60.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.94 and a beta of 0.44.

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 firm 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 8.38% and a return on equity of 9.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.99 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that New Oriental Education & Technology Group will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of New Oriental Education & Technology Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 6.5% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 190,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,792,000 after purchasing an additional 11,622 shares during the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp bought a new position in shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $212,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new position in shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $15,274,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 26.8% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 686,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,354,000 after purchasing an additional 145,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its stake in New Oriental Education & Technology Group by 16.6% in the second quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 1,380,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,283,000 after buying an additional 196,133 shares in the last quarter.

About New Oriental Education & Technology Group

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.