Horizon Investments LLC Purchases New Position in Scholastic Corporation $SCHL

Horizon Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 21,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of SCHL. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Scholastic by 160.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 157,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,972,000 after purchasing an additional 96,998 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in Scholastic by 4.8% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 13,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Scholastic by 4.2% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 164,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,100,000 after buying an additional 6,628 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in Scholastic by 457.8% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 81,390 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,537,000 after buying an additional 66,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Scholastic by 16.8% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 23,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,365 shares during the period. 82.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research raised Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 3rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. B. Riley Financial raised their target price on Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Scholastic Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of SCHL stock opened at $40.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $871.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.17 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.24. Scholastic Corporation has a 12-month low of $16.78 and a 12-month high of $43.39.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.22. The business had revenue of $329.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a return on equity of 2.47% and a net margin of 3.88%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scholastic Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.26%.

Scholastic announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Friday, March 20th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 23% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is a global company dedicated to children’s publishing, education technology and distribution services. The company’s core business encompasses three primary segments: Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Technology, and International operations. Through its publishing arm, Scholastic produces and distributes a wide range of children’s books, novels, nonfiction titles and classroom magazines under well-known imprints such as Scholastic Press, Graphix and Chicken House.