John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) to Buyback $250.00 million in Stock

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, June 26th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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 research note on Saturday, June 21st.

John Wiley & Sons Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:WLY traded up $0.10 on Friday, reaching $45.30. 1,589,228 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 395,204. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a fifty day moving average of $41.94 and a 200-day moving average of $42.41. John Wiley & Sons has a 52-week low of $36.50 and a 52-week high of $53.96.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $442.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $435.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 5.02% and a return on equity of 27.42%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that John Wiley & Sons will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current 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 given 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 3.14%. John Wiley & Sons's payout ratio is currently 92.16%.

John Wiley & Sons Company 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.