Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Acquires New Position in Scholastic Corporation $SCHL

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 238,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,070,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Scholastic by 458.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,593 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Scholastic by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Scholastic in the 4th quarter valued at about $116,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Scholastic in the 3rd quarter valued at about $137,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Scholastic by 127.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on SCHL shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on shares of Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Scholastic presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.00.

Scholastic Stock Up 5.6%

Scholastic stock opened at $42.77 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $929.91 million, a PE ratio of 17.25 and a beta of 1.04. Scholastic Corporation has a 52-week low of $16.81 and a 52-week high of $43.39. The company’s 50 day moving average is $39.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.65.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released 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 company had revenue of $329.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a net margin of 3.88% and a return on equity of 2.47%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Scholastic announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, March 20th that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 23% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Scholastic Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.26%.

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.