John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Hits New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $50.56 and last traded at $50.53, with a volume of 54816 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.76.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.35 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company’s fifty day moving average is $46.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.69.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 5th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.08). John Wiley & Sons had a negative net margin of 6.00% and a positive return on equity of 21.59%. The firm had revenue of $403.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $387.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

John Wiley & Sons Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 8th will be paid a $0.352 dividend. This represents a $1.41 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 8th. John Wiley & Sons’s payout ratio is -70.50%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other John Wiley & Sons news, EVP Danielle Mcmahan sold 2,318 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total value of $114,532.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,978 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $443,602.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WLY. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 96.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 754 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 28,560 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 5,462 shares in the last quarter. Penbrook Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 1st quarter valued at $210,000. Mission Wealth Management LP lifted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 11,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 7.9% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 21,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $778,000 after purchasing an additional 1,537 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.94% of the company’s stock.

About John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc operates as a research and education company worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Research, Academic, and Talent. The company offers scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, as well as related content and services to learned societies, individual researchers, other professionals, and academic, corporate, and government libraries.