John Wiley & Sons, Inc. $WLY Shares Sold by Grandfield & Dodd LLC

Grandfield & Dodd LLC lowered its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) by 20.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,902 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,474 shares during the quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s holdings in John Wiley & Sons were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of WLY. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the first quarter worth approximately $29,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH purchased a new position in John Wiley & Sons during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Whittier Trust Co. acquired a new position in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. State of Wyoming grew its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the 1st quarter worth $65,000. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WLY. Wall Street Zen cut John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of John Wiley & Sons in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

John Wiley & Sons Stock Performance

NYSE:WLY opened at $35.61 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.35 and a twelve month high of $53.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01 and a beta of 1.03.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 28th. The company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 27.31% and a net margin of 5.82%.The company had revenue of $533.00 million for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

John Wiley & Sons announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 25th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 11.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

John Wiley & Sons Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 7th were given a dividend of $0.355 per share. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 7th. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is presently 79.78%.

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.