John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Key Points

• John Wiley & Sons exceeded earnings expectations, reporting quarterly EPS of $0.44 versus the $0.40 consensus estimate. However, revenue declined 2.6% year over year, and EPS fell from $0.49 in the prior-year quarter.
• Shares opened at $51.24 and traded down 2.2%, with the company carrying a $2.60 billion market capitalization and a P/E ratio of 12.11.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.3575 per share, equivalent to an annualized $1.43 payout and a 2.8% yield; institutional investors own approximately 73.94% of the stock.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.04, Briefing.com reports. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 29.01%. The firm's revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.49 EPS.

John Wiley & Sons Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of WLY stock opened at $51.24 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 0.78. John Wiley & Sons has a 1 year low of $28.38 and a 1 year high of $57.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.36.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th were paid a $0.3575 dividend. This is a boost from John Wiley & Sons's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. John Wiley & Sons's dividend payout ratio is presently 33.81%.

Institutional Trading of John Wiley & Sons

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 636,051 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,482,000 after acquiring an additional 44,493 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 16,456 shares of the company's stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,321 shares of the company's stock worth $347,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the fourth quarter worth about $2,518,000. 73.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WLY. Zacks Research lowered shares of John Wiley & Sons from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded John Wiley & Sons from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

About John Wiley & Sons

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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