John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Hits New 52-Week High Following Dividend Announcement

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday following a dividend announcement from the company. The company traded as high as $48.31 and last traded at $47.9540, with a volume of 2722942 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.56.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be issued a $0.3575 dividend. This is a positive change from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is currently 33.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WLY has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded John Wiley & Sons from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research cut John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

John Wiley & Sons Trading Up 5.3%

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.20. The company has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.54.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 16th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $447.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $450.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 29.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.600-5.050 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 650,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,306,000 after purchasing an additional 78,595 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd boosted its position in John Wiley & Sons by 891.4% in the third quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 79,871 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,232,000 after buying an additional 71,815 shares in the last quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in John Wiley & Sons by 16.7% in the third quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,207,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,351,000 after buying an additional 315,329 shares in the last quarter. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new position in John Wiley & Sons in the third quarter valued at about $16,012,000. Finally, Brickwood Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in John Wiley & Sons during the fourth quarter worth about $724,000. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About John Wiley & Sons

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.