John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Shares Gap Up on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $37.03, but opened at $40.80. John Wiley & Sons shares last traded at $39.73, with a volume of 104,426 shares traded.

The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $442.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $435.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 26.43% and a net margin of 2.43%. John Wiley & Sons’s revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.21 EPS.

John Wiley & Sons Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th were issued a $0.3525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $1.41 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 190.54%.

Institutional Trading of John Wiley & Sons

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the fourth quarter worth about $361,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 6,487 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 567 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,318,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,485,000 after buying an additional 21,748 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 5,949.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 69,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,105,000 after buying an additional 68,540 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 440,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,244,000 after buying an additional 43,275 shares during the period. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $41.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a PE ratio of 55.06 and a beta of 0.88.

About John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc engages in the provision of research and learning materials. It operates through the following segments: Research, Learning, and Held for Sale or Sold. The Research segment consists of research publishing and research solutions. The Learning segment includes academic and professional reporting lines and consists of publishing and related knowledge solutions.