John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Shares Down 4.3% – Here’s Why

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY)’s share price was down 4.3% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $46.28 and last traded at $47.35. Approximately 82,709 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average daily volume of 335,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.47.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of -23.20 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $50.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. John Wiley & Sons had a positive return on equity of 21.59% and a negative net margin of 6.00%. The company had revenue of $426.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $420.00 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

John Wiley & Sons Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 8th were paid a dividend of $0.352 per share. This represents a $1.41 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.41, for a total transaction of $114,532.38. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 8,978 shares in the company, valued at $443,602.98. This represents a 20.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 113.6% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 35,762 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 19,017 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 40.1% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 407,997 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,273,000 after acquiring an additional 116,772 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of John Wiley & Sons in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,240,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in John Wiley & Sons during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,418,000. Finally, Arjuna Capital grew its stake in John Wiley & Sons by 213.3% during the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 54,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,213,000 after buying an additional 37,019 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.