This trade activity should not be overlooked: New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (EDU)

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU) stock fell -0.19% on Monday to $57.17 against a previous-day closing price of $57.28. With 1.31 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.61 million shares. During the session, the Education & Training Services company that operates in wider Consumer Defensive sector, reached to the highest price of $57.56 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $56.38. The 52-week range on EDU shows that it touched its highest point at $60.19 and its lowest point at $17.01 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $62.96. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.68.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of EDU was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -0.83%, but this was up by 10.20% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 35.15% while six-month performance rose 61.18%. The stock gained 122.45% in the past year, while it has gained 64.19% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for EDU yields 1.10 with Next year EPS estimates of 3.08. For the next quarter, that number is 0.80. This implies an EPS growth rate of 114.30% for this year and 33.90% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 0.29% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -11.90%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 169.70 million EDU shares are outstanding with a float of 166.44 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 2.87 million, which was 1.69% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Minhong Yu as the firm’s Founder & Exec. Chairman, Mr. Chenggang Zhou serves as its CEO & Director.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 45.10% of EDU’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 30.60% of EDU, in contrast to 10.56% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for –. As the largest shareholder in EDU with 2.56% of the stake, Greenwoods Investments SG Pte Ltd holds 4,351,294 shares worth 4,351,294. A second-largest stockholder of EDU, Alkeon Capital Management LLC, holds 4,300,581 shares, controlling over 2.53% of the firm’s shares. The Baupost Group LLC is the third largest shareholder in EDU, holding 4,118,784 shares or 2.42% stake. With a 1.22% stake in EDU, the ACAP Strategic Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,075,589 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Fidelity Inv. Trust – Emerging Ma, which owns about 1.05% of EDU stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,780,308 shares valued at 96.56 million. R Valor Fund holds 0.75% of the stake in EDU, owning 1,267,896 shares worth 68.77 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for EDU since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With EDU analysts setting a high price target of $85.00 and a low target of $42.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $63.00. Based on these targets, EDU could surge 48.68% to reach the target high and fall by -26.53% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 10.2% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.