Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 177,828 Shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. $WLY

Vanguard Group Inc. lowered its holdings in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,140,984 shares of the company’s stock after selling 177,828 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 9.55% of John Wiley & Sons worth $229,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 35.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 2.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 222,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,936,000 after purchasing an additional 5,901 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in John Wiley & Sons during the 1st quarter worth approximately $880,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 440,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,244,000 after acquiring an additional 43,275 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 55.5% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 33,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,450,000 after acquiring an additional 11,839 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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 Stock Performance

John Wiley & Sons stock opened at $39.68 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 25.94 and a beta of 0.96. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.50 and a 1-year high of $53.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

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

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 8th were issued a $0.355 dividend. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 8th. This is a positive change from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is currently 92.81%.

John Wiley & Sons declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, June 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 10.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

John Wiley & Sons 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.