Share Repurchase Plan Initiated by John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) Board

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, June 26th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 10.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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 WLY opened at $45.30 on Friday. John Wiley & Sons has a fifty-two week low of $36.50 and a fifty-two week high of $53.96. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $41.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.46. The company has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.60 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 17th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.10. John Wiley & Sons had a return on equity of 27.42% and a net margin of 5.02%. The business had revenue of $442.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $435.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that John Wiley & Sons will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

John Wiley & Sons Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be paid a $0.355 dividend. This is a positive change from John Wiley & Sons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.14%. John Wiley & Sons’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.16%.

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.