Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Position in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 222,972 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 5,901 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.41% of John Wiley & Sons worth $9,936,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,880,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,916,000. Alta Fox Capital Management LLC grew its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 171.8% in the 4th quarter. Alta Fox Capital Management LLC now owns 347,047 shares of the company's stock valued at $15,169,000 after buying an additional 219,349 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new position in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,436,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.94% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

NYSE:WLY traded down $0.55 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $39.33. The stock had a trading volume of 154,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 404,760. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.22. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $36.50 and a one year high of $53.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71 and a beta of 0.91.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $442.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $435.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.21 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.355 per share. This is an increase from John Wiley & Sons's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 8th. John Wiley & Sons's payout ratio is currently 92.81%.

John Wiley & Sons declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, June 26th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership 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.