Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 328,780 Shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) by 29.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 787,639 shares of the company’s stock after selling 328,780 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in John Wiley & Sons were worth $35,097,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WLY. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 191.0% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,121 shares of the company’s stock valued at $904,000 after acquiring an additional 13,863 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,053,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,028,000 after acquiring an additional 25,667 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 86.0% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 8,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $374,000 after purchasing an additional 3,961 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the fourth quarter valued at $707,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 95,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,176,000 after buying an additional 12,115 shares during the last quarter. 73.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wall Street Zen raised John Wiley & Sons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 21st.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WLY opened at $40.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $41.77 and a 200-day moving average of $42.26. The company has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a PE ratio of 26.70 and a beta of 0.91. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has a one year low of $36.50 and a one year high of $53.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.54.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $442.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $435.00 million. John Wiley & Sons had a net margin of 5.02% and a return on equity of 27.42%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.21 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that John Wiley & Sons, Inc. will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

John Wiley & Sons declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, June 26th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be paid a $0.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 8th. This is a positive change from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.48%. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.81%.

About John Wiley & Sons

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.