Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) to Buyback $200.00 million in Stock

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, March 20th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 23% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SCHL shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

Scholastic Price Performance

NASDAQ SCHL traded up $3.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $37.25. 2,353,115 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 402,231. Scholastic has a 1-year low of $15.77 and a 1-year high of $38.94. The company has a market cap of $947.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.67.

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 analysts’ expectations of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a return on equity of 2.44% and a net margin of 3.88%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Scholastic will post 0.84 EPS for the current year.

Scholastic Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.26%.

Scholastic News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Scholastic this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 EPS outperformed consensus (loss of $0.15 vs. est. $0.37 loss), which relieved near‑term earnings concerns and helped lift the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The Board authorized a $200 million modified Dutch‑auction tender offer (expected price $36–$40) — immediate buyback demand and signaling of undervaluation support the rally. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The repurchase action is part of a larger capital‑return and balance‑sheet plan (Board set a $300M total repurchase authorization and a long‑term net leverage target of 2.0–2.5x adjusted EBITDA), which reduces capital allocation uncertainty. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst action: B. Riley raised its price target to $40 (maintaining a “neutral” rating), implying upside and lending incremental analyst support. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, reinforcing shareholder returns alongside buybacks. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and commentary pieces (Seeking Alpha, transcripts) frame the results as evidence of strategic progress and management’s focus on margin expansion — useful context but secondary to the concrete buyback and EPS beat. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue narrowly missed estimates ($329.1M vs. $331.5M expected) and the company still reports a small net loss and negative margin, highlighting operational challenges in core book sales that could limit upside without durable revenue improvement. Article Title

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.