Scholastic Corporation $SCHL Stake Lifted by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,593,981 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,017 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Scholastic worth $47,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SCHL. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Scholastic by 160.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 157,436 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,972,000 after purchasing an additional 96,998 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Scholastic by 4.8% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 13,851 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Scholastic by 4.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 164,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,100,000 after purchasing an additional 6,628 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Scholastic by 457.8% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 81,390 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,537,000 after purchasing an additional 66,798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Scholastic by 16.8% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 23,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,365 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SCHL shares. Zacks Research upgraded Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 3rd. B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Scholastic Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Scholastic stock opened at $39.70 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.66. The company has a market cap of $863.16 million, a P/E ratio of 16.01 and a beta of 1.04. Scholastic Corporation has a 1 year low of $16.78 and a 1 year high of $43.39.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.22. Scholastic had a return on equity of 2.47% and a net margin of 3.88%.The company had revenue of $329.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $331.53 million. On average, equities analysts forecast 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 stock repurchase plan on Friday, March 20th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 23% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Scholastic Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.26%.

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.