Kaya Henderson Sells 3,250 Shares of Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) Stock

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) Director Kaya Henderson sold 3,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.25, for a total value of $130,812.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,113 shares in the company, valued at approximately $286,298.25. This trade represents a 31.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Scholastic Stock Up 5.2%

Shares of SCHL stock opened at $41.98 on Friday. Scholastic Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.68 and a twelve month high of $48.07. The stock has a market cap of $791.74 million, a P/E ratio of 17.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $43.99 and a 200 day moving average of $39.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $476.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $517.06 million. Scholastic had a return on equity of 5.29% and a net margin of 3.58%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Scholastic Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Scholastic’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 31st. Scholastic’s payout ratio is currently 34.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on SCHL. B. Riley Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Scholastic from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research cut Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings lowered Scholastic from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Scholastic has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $42.00.

Institutional Trading of Scholastic

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SCHL. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Scholastic in the 2nd quarter worth about $120,724,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Scholastic by 879.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,159,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,741,000 after buying an additional 1,040,880 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Scholastic during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,288,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Scholastic during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,417,000. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new position in shares of Scholastic in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,070,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

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.