John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.02, Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $447.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $450.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 29.01% and a net margin of 13.22%.The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.37 EPS. John Wiley & Sons updated its FY 2027 guidance to 4.600-5.050 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from John Wiley & Sons’ conference call:

• Wiley said fiscal 2026 was a breakout year, with record margins, strong free cash flow growth, and adjusted EBITDA margin reaching an all-time high of 26.2%. Adjusted EPS rose 15%, and free cash flow increased 55% to $195 million.
• Research remained a key strength, with 4% revenue growth for the year, 11% output growth, and 25% growth in submissions, while management said the business is tracking toward mid-single-digit growth. The company also highlighted new society wins and the addition of Emerald Publishing to deepen its research portfolio.
• Wiley’s AI and data analytics business continued to scale, with revenue rising from $40 million to $49 million and recurring AI revenue growing rapidly. Management expects AI revenue to exceed $50 million in fiscal 2027, with recurring revenue expected to expand by 2x to 3x from the prior year’s $8 million base.
• The company completed the Emerald Publishing acquisition for about $450 million, calling it highly strategic and financially attractive. Wiley expects $30 million of cost synergies by year three, modest EPS accretion in year one, and free cash flow accretion by year two.
• Learning remained a headwind, with academic revenue down 5% and professional revenue down 10% for the year, though management expects improvement in fiscal 2027. Wiley also said Q4 cash flow was affected by late renewal signings that pushed some collections into Q1.

John Wiley & Sons Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE WLY opened at $45.35 on Thursday. John Wiley & Sons has a fifty-two week low of $28.38 and a fifty-two week high of $45.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.79. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72 and a beta of 0.80.

John Wiley & Sons Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 7th were issued a $0.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 7th. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WLY shares. Zacks Research cut John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded John Wiley & Sons from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 636,051 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,482,000 after buying an additional 44,493 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 16,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $504,000 after buying an additional 1,465 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,518,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting John Wiley & Sons

Here are the key news stories impacting John Wiley & Sons this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wiley reported fiscal Q4 EPS of $1.67, slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations, while revenue was nearly in line and up 1.2% year over year. Earnings report and transcript
• Positive Sentiment: The company highlighted record margins, operating income growth, and cash-flow improvement for fiscal 2026, which suggests efficiency gains and stronger underlying earnings power. BusinessWire results
• Positive Sentiment: Management pointed to “research and AI momentum” and strategic progress, which may support the market’s view that Wiley can benefit from higher-demand areas of its business. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiley issued FY 2027 EPS guidance of 4.60 to 5.05, which brackets the consensus estimate and suggests steady but not dramatically above-expectation earnings growth. MarketBeat stock page
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue of $447.94 million slightly missed estimates, which could temper enthusiasm despite the earnings beat. Fiscal Q4 snapshot

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.