John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Shares Gap Down - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• John Wiley & Sons shares initially gapped down from a prior close of $51.05 to an opening price of $48.84, but later traded at $54.06, up 4.3%.
• Recent analyst sentiment is mixed, with Weiss Ratings upgrading the stock to “buy” while Zacks Research downgraded it to “hold”; the overall consensus rating remains “Moderate Buy.”
• The company beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, while raising its quarterly dividend to $0.3575 per share, equivalent to a 2.7% yield. Institutional investors own approximately 73.94% of the stock.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $51.05, but opened at $48.84. John Wiley & Sons shares last traded at $54.0620, with a volume of 161,877 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on WLY shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of John Wiley & Sons from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Zacks Research lowered John Wiley & Sons from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, John Wiley & Sons currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

John Wiley & Sons Trading Up 4.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $51.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.62 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $386.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $380.20 million. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 29.01% and a net margin of 13.22%.The company's revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th were issued a $0.3575 dividend. This is an increase from John Wiley & Sons's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 7th. John Wiley & Sons's dividend payout ratio is presently 33.81%.

Institutional Trading of John Wiley & Sons

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,840,470 shares of the company's stock worth $148,264,000 after purchasing an additional 25,174 shares during the period. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,617,945 shares of the company's stock valued at $80,188,000 after buying an additional 410,121 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 3,580.2% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,060,802 shares of the company's stock worth $99,970,000 after buying an additional 2,004,805 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 14.3% in the 1st 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 during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,807,857 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,375,000 after acquiring an additional 234,527 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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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