John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Shares Gap Up After Earnings Beat

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $37.03, but opened at $40.80. John Wiley & Sons shares last traded at $39.73, with a volume of 104,426 shares changing hands.

The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.10. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 5.02% and a return on equity of 27.42%. The company had revenue of $442.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $435.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.21 EPS. John Wiley & Sons’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis.

John Wiley & Sons Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 8th were paid a dividend of $0.3525 per share. This represents a $1.41 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 8th. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 190.54%.

Institutional Trading of John Wiley & Sons

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WLY. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 686.1% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 114.6% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 749 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 4th quarter worth about $46,000. 73.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

John Wiley & Sons Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $41.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.81 and a beta of 0.88.

John Wiley & Sons Company 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.