Wall Street Zen Downgrades John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded John Wiley & Sons to “Hold” from “Strong Buy,” following similar downgrades by Weiss Ratings and Zacks Research. MarketBeat data shows a consensus “Hold” rating.
• Wiley’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $0.44 versus the $0.40 estimate and revenue of $386.36 million versus $380.20 million, though revenue declined 2.6% year over year.
• Institutional investors own 73.94% of the company, with several funds increasing their positions during the first quarter, including Dimensional Fund Advisors, which held about 1.83 million shares.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of John Wiley & Sons from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Tuesday. Zacks Research downgraded John Wiley & Sons from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, John Wiley & Sons presently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

John Wiley & Sons Stock Performance

Shares of WLY stock opened at $47.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. John Wiley & Sons has a 52 week low of $28.38 and a 52 week high of $57.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $51.29 and a 200-day moving average of $44.18. The company has a market cap of $2.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.78.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $386.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.20 million. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 11.90% and a return on equity of 27.99%. John Wiley & Sons's revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.600-5.050 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that John Wiley & Sons will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of John Wiley & Sons

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 66.0% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 94,647 shares of the company's stock worth $3,606,000 after buying an additional 37,642 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 38.6% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 103,974 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,961,000 after buying an additional 28,931 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 297.8% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 38,360 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,462,000 after buying an additional 28,716 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the first quarter valued at about $1,739,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 14.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,829,676 shares of the company's stock worth $69,711,000 after acquiring an additional 228,864 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.94% of the company's stock.

John Wiley & Sons Company Profile

John Wiley & Sons, Inc is a global publishing and educational services company founded in 1807 and headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company operates through two primary segments: Research & Publishing and Education. Through these segments, Wiley produces a wide range of scholarly journals, books, reference works and digital products for academic, scientific, technical and medical markets, as well as professional development and higher education learning resources.

In its Research & Publishing segment, Wiley publishes thousands of peer-reviewed journals and maintains the Wiley Online Library, a leading platform for scientific and scholarly content.

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