Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research downgraded Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Scholastic Stock Performance

SCHL opened at $37.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $34.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.46. Scholastic has a 1 year low of $15.77 and a 1 year high of $38.94. The stock has a market cap of $947.64 million, a P/E ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.22. Scholastic had a net margin of 3.88% and a return on equity of 2.44%. The company had revenue of $329.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $331.53 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Scholastic will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Scholastic announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Friday, March 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 23% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Scholastic Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 30th. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.26%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Scholastic

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SCHL. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Scholastic by 63.1% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 983 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in shares of Scholastic by 458.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,593 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Scholastic during the 4th quarter worth $116,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Scholastic during the 3rd quarter worth $137,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Scholastic by 127.4% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after acquiring an additional 2,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Scholastic

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

Scholastic Company Profile

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.