What happened
When the company behind a low-priced stock announces positive move, it can often disproportionately shoot that stock well higher. This has been occurring with specialty bookseller Barnes & Noble Education (BNED -4.14%) of late.
After the company published some encouraging data about one of its programs, its share price was rocketing more than 63% higher week to date as of early Friday, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
So what
Barnes & Noble Education, which as its name suggests is an academic bookseller once part of chain retailer Barnes & Noble, unveiled that data on Thursday. The company said, no doubt enthusiastically, that a survey of college students found that the vast majority (83%) of respondents found the company's First Day Complete program had a positive effect on their work in the classroom.
The program, managed by the company's Barnes & Noble College unit, is a partnership with universities in which students are provided with all materials necessary for one term in a single bundle. According to the company, this can save customers anywhere from 35% to 50% over buying those items individually.
Among the findings of the survey, Barnes & Noble Education said 75% of respondents believed the initiative helped them get better grades and 78% said that participating in First Day Complete made it more likely for them to continue being enrolled at their school.
Now what
While that data was compiled by an in-house research unit at Barnes & Noble Education and should be taken with a tiny grain of salt, those scores were striking. The company, it seems, has hit a sweet spot in the academic market with First Day Complete.
Unfortunately investors can't get a good picture of how this is impacting its operations, as it did not provide any financial results of the program to accompany the survey results.
