Bank of New York Mellon Corp Cuts Stock Holdings in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its position in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY - Free Report) by 29.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 787,639 shares of the company's stock after selling 328,780 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 1.46% of John Wiley & Sons worth $35,097,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WLY. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in John Wiley & Sons by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,318,812 shares of the company's stock valued at $232,485,000 after purchasing an additional 21,748 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in John Wiley & Sons by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,053,035 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,028,000 after purchasing an additional 25,667 shares during the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in John Wiley & Sons by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,027,831 shares of the company's stock valued at $44,926,000 after purchasing an additional 17,583 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in John Wiley & Sons during the fourth quarter valued at $44,880,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 917,596 shares of the company's stock worth $40,117,000 after acquiring an additional 35,888 shares during the last quarter. 73.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

John Wiley & Sons Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of John Wiley & Sons stock traded down $0.61 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $40.19. The stock had a trading volume of 606,155 shares, compared to its average volume of 405,483. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.50 and a 12 month high of $53.96. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $41.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.26. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 billion, a PE ratio of 26.27 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.51.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.10. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 5.02% and a return on equity of 27.42%. The company had revenue of $442.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $435.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.21 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

John Wiley & Sons announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, June 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.355 per share. This is a positive change from John Wiley & Sons's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 8th. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.53%. John Wiley & Sons's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.81%.

About John Wiley & Sons

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.