William Blair Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. $WLY

William Blair Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 931,752 shares of the company’s stock after selling 75,066 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 1.75% of John Wiley & Sons worth $41,584,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WLY. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 565.3% during the 1st quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 67,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,986,000 after buying an additional 56,947 shares during the last quarter. Kendall Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 84,617 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,771,000 after buying an additional 7,220 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 29.7% during the 1st quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 11,112 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,000 after buying an additional 2,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 222,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,936,000 after buying an additional 5,901 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WLY has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of John Wiley & Sons from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of John Wiley & Sons in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

John Wiley & Sons Stock Up 0.2%

John Wiley & Sons stock opened at $37.06 on Friday. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.94 and a fifty-two week high of $53.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $39.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.90. The company has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a PE ratio of 20.82 and a beta of 1.03.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $533.00 million during the quarter. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 5.82% and a return on equity of 27.31%. Research analysts expect that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

John Wiley & Sons Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 7th will be paid a $0.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 7th. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is 79.78%.

John Wiley & Sons declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, June 26th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

John Wiley & Sons Profile

John Wiley & Sons, Inc engages in the provision of research and learning materials. It operates through the following segments: Research, Learning, and Held for Sale or Sold. The Research segment consists of research publishing and research solutions. The Learning segment includes academic and professional reporting lines and consists of publishing and related knowledge solutions.