John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) Shares Acquired by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) by 35.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,564 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in John Wiley & Sons were worth $70,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 37.8% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 26.9% in the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 35,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 7,433 shares during the period. Silverberg Bernstein Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in John Wiley & Sons during the 1st quarter worth $704,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 107.4% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 18,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 9,677 shares during the period. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in John Wiley & Sons by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,027,831 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,926,000 after buying an additional 17,583 shares during the period. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

John Wiley & Sons Trading Up 1.7%

WLY opened at $42.65 on Wednesday. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.50 and a twelve month high of $53.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $41.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 27.88 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.54.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.10. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 27.42% and a net margin of 5.02%. The firm had revenue of $442.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $435.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.21 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be given a dividend of $0.355 per share. This is an increase from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 8th. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.16%.

John Wiley & Sons announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, June 26th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wall Street Zen raised shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 21st.

John Wiley & Sons Company Profile

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.