Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) Price Target Raised to $40.00

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) had its price objective raised by B. Riley Financial from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. B. Riley Financial currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Scholastic Stock Up 8.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:SCHL opened at $37.25 on Friday. Scholastic has a 1 year low of $15.77 and a 1 year high of $38.94. The company has a market capitalization of $947.64 million, a PE ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $34.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.22. The company had revenue of $329.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a return on equity of 2.44% and a net margin of 3.88%. Analysts forecast that Scholastic will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Scholastic Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.26%.

Scholastic announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Friday, March 20th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 23% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Scholastic

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SCHL. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Scholastic by 57.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 424,973 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,592,000 after buying an additional 154,668 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Scholastic by 23.4% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 10,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,000 after acquiring an additional 2,024 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Scholastic by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,688,000 after acquiring an additional 10,729 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Scholastic in the fourth quarter valued at $1,369,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Scholastic during the 4th quarter valued at $807,000. Institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

More Scholastic News

Here are the key news stories impacting Scholastic this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 EPS outperformed consensus (loss of $0.15 vs. est. $0.37 loss), which relieved near‑term earnings concerns and helped lift the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The Board authorized a $200 million modified Dutch‑auction tender offer (expected price $36–$40) — immediate buyback demand and signaling of undervaluation support the rally. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The repurchase action is part of a larger capital‑return and balance‑sheet plan (Board set a $300M total repurchase authorization and a long‑term net leverage target of 2.0–2.5x adjusted EBITDA), which reduces capital allocation uncertainty. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst action: B. Riley raised its price target to $40 (maintaining a “neutral” rating), implying upside and lending incremental analyst support. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, reinforcing shareholder returns alongside buybacks. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and commentary pieces (Seeking Alpha, transcripts) frame the results as evidence of strategic progress and management’s focus on margin expansion — useful context but secondary to the concrete buyback and EPS beat. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue narrowly missed estimates ($329.1M vs. $331.5M expected) and the company still reports a small net loss and negative margin, highlighting operational challenges in core book sales that could limit upside without durable revenue improvement. Article Title

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is a global company dedicated to children’s publishing, education technology and distribution services. The company’s core business encompasses three primary segments: Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Technology, and International operations. Through its publishing arm, Scholastic produces and distributes a wide range of children’s books, novels, nonfiction titles and classroom magazines under well-known imprints such as Scholastic Press, Graphix and Chicken House.