John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Trading Down 4.5% – Should You Sell?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s share price fell 4.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $49.03 and last traded at $48.36. Approximately 116,787 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 512,898 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.66.

More John Wiley & Sons News

Here are the key news stories impacting John Wiley & Sons this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wiley reported adjusted quarterly EPS of $0.44, exceeding the $0.40 analyst consensus, while revenue of $386.36 million also surpassed estimates of $380.20 million. John Wiley & Sons Beats Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management reaffirmed its full-year outlook, including fiscal 2027 EPS guidance of $4.60 to $5.05. The midpoint of the range is slightly above the current $4.80 consensus estimate, supporting the view that the quarter did not materially derail the company’s expectations. Wiley Reports First Quarter 2027 Results
• Neutral Sentiment: The reported adjusted earnings beat was partly offset by restructuring charges. Wiley posted a GAAP diluted loss of $0.23 per share, compared with a $0.22 profit a year earlier, while operating income declined to $3 million from $31 million. Wiley First Quarter Results
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue fell approximately 3% year over year, and adjusted EPS declined from $0.49 to $0.44. The combination of declining sales, lower operating income and the headline GAAP loss likely explains why the stock has weakened despite the estimate beats.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

John Wiley & Sons Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $51.54 and a 200 day moving average of $43.51.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $386.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.20 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 down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. John Wiley & Sons has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.600-5.050 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were issued a dividend of $0.3575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is presently 33.81%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WLY. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 94.9% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 34,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,683,000 after purchasing an additional 16,889 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $233,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 3,580.2% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,060,802 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,970,000 after buying an additional 2,004,805 shares during the period. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $129,000. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 33.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 179,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,722,000 after buying an additional 44,770 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

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.