John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Sets New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $53.47 and last traded at $53.6250, with a volume of 102884 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $51.01.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Zacks Research lowered shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a PE ratio of 12.82 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50-day moving average of $46.61 and a 200 day moving average of $39.18.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 16th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.02. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.600-5.050 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 a positive change 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 currently 33.81%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,840,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,264,000 after acquiring an additional 25,174 shares in the last quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 18.6% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 14.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,829,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,711,000 after purchasing an additional 228,864 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,807,857 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,375,000 after purchasing an additional 234,527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,714,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,515,000 after purchasing an additional 34,782 shares during the last quarter. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.