LRN - Stride stock gains as Morgan Stanley upgrades to 'Buy'

Stride, Inc. ( NYSE: LRN ) shares rose sharply in Thursday’s premarket hours after Morgan Stanley raised its outlook on the name to a Buy-equivalent rating.

The bank’s analyst voiced the belief that the company’s growth profile is not reflected in its valuation. In particular, the analysis indicated that the promise of its efforts in career learning is not appreciated by the market at present.

“We upgrade LRN to [Overweight] (from [Equal Weight]) as we see an attractive risk-reward and believe the market is under-appreciating the growth story,” an upgrade note read. “LRN is the leading provider of virtual K12 education in the US, and has a rapidly growing Career Learning business…Career Learning has a long runway for growth (only currently operates in 24 states) serving the underpenetrated middle-high school career prep market.”

Shares of the Virginia-based online learning company rose over 3% prior to Thursday’s open before moderating premarket gains to about 1.91%.

Read more on the company’s moves to partner with online universities .

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