John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $52.47 and last traded at $52.06, with a volume of 10267 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.57.

John Wiley & Sons Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $48.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.57.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last issued its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $403.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $387.40 million. John Wiley & Sons had a positive return on equity of 21.59% and a negative net margin of 6.00%. John Wiley & Sons’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share.

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 issued a dividend of $0.352 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 8th. This represents a $1.41 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. 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 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 8,978 shares in the company, valued at $443,602.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On John Wiley & Sons

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WLY. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in John Wiley & Sons by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,924,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,326,000 after purchasing an additional 90,693 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,302,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,022,000 after acquiring an additional 24,215 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,060,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,440,000 after buying an additional 188,211 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in John Wiley & Sons by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 987,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,196,000 after buying an additional 15,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of John Wiley & Sons by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 501,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,427,000 after acquiring an additional 81,968 shares during the last quarter. 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.