John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $53.47 and last traded at $53.6250, with a volume of 102884 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $51.01.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

John Wiley & Sons Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day moving average of $47.15 and a 200-day moving average of $39.52.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 16th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $447.94 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $450.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 29.01% and a net margin of 13.22%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.600-5.050 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 4.8 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were given a $0.3575 dividend. This represents a $1.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.81%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,840,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,264,000 after purchasing an additional 25,174 shares during the period. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,617,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,188,000 after purchasing an additional 410,121 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 14.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,829,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,711,000 after buying an additional 228,864 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position 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 worth $55,375,000 after buying an additional 234,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 2.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,714,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,515,000 after buying an additional 34,782 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.