Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. B. Riley Financial raised their price target on shares of Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Scholastic currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Scholastic Stock Performance

Scholastic stock opened at $37.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $947.64 million, a PE ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.17. Scholastic has a one year low of $15.77 and a one year high of $38.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.67.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.22. The company had revenue of $329.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a net margin of 3.88% and a return on equity of 2.44%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Scholastic will post 0.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scholastic declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, March 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 23% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Scholastic

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCHL. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of Scholastic by 458.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,593 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Scholastic by 63.1% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 983 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Scholastic in the 4th quarter valued at about $116,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Scholastic during the 3rd quarter valued at about $137,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Scholastic by 127.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares during the period. 82.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Scholastic

Here are the key news stories impacting Scholastic this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 EPS outperformed consensus (loss of $0.15 vs. est. $0.37 loss), which relieved near‑term earnings concerns and helped lift the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The Board authorized a $200 million modified Dutch‑auction tender offer (expected price $36–$40) — immediate buyback demand and signaling of undervaluation support the rally. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The repurchase action is part of a larger capital‑return and balance‑sheet plan (Board set a $300M total repurchase authorization and a long‑term net leverage target of 2.0–2.5x adjusted EBITDA), which reduces capital allocation uncertainty. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst action: B. Riley raised its price target to $40 (maintaining a “neutral” rating), implying upside and lending incremental analyst support. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, reinforcing shareholder returns alongside buybacks. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and commentary pieces (Seeking Alpha, transcripts) frame the results as evidence of strategic progress and management’s focus on margin expansion — useful context but secondary to the concrete buyback and EPS beat. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue narrowly missed estimates ($329.1M vs. $331.5M expected) and the company still reports a small net loss and negative margin, highlighting operational challenges in core book sales that could limit upside without durable revenue improvement. Article Title

Scholastic Company Profile

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is a global company dedicated to children’s publishing, education technology and distribution services. The company’s core business encompasses three primary segments: Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Technology, and International operations. Through its publishing arm, Scholastic produces and distributes a wide range of children’s books, novels, nonfiction titles and classroom magazines under well-known imprints such as Scholastic Press, Graphix and Chicken House.