Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Scholastic Co. (NASDAQ:SCHL) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 5,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.
A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SCHL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Scholastic in the fourth quarter valued at $2,281,000. Granite Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Scholastic during the fourth quarter valued at about $12,740,000. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Scholastic by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 433,832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,401,000 after purchasing an additional 20,285 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of Scholastic during the fourth quarter valued at about $414,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Scholastic by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 51,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,058,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.32% of the company’s stock.
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A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SCHL. BidaskClub cut shares of Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 14th. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Scholastic from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 5th. Finally, Gabelli restated a “buy” rating on shares of Scholastic in a research note on Friday, March 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.00.
In related news, EVP Judith Newman sold 1,000 shares of Scholastic stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.10, for a total transaction of $40,100.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $652,386.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard Robinson sold 83,860 shares of Scholastic stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $3,321,694.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,382,127 shares in the company, valued at $173,576,050.47. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 241,740 shares of company stock worth $9,491,361. Company insiders own 22.30% of the company’s stock.
Shares of Scholastic opened at $44.19 on Monday, according to MarketBeat. Scholastic Co. has a fifty-two week low of $33.51 and a fifty-two week high of $46.59. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.15 and a beta of 0.75.
Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 21st. The company reported ($0.30) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.35) by $0.05. Scholastic had a negative net margin of 1.00% and a positive return on equity of 3.58%. The business had revenue of $344.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $350.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.36) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. research analysts predict that Scholastic Co. will post 1.45 EPS for the current year.
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 27th. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.79%.
Scholastic declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, March 21st that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
Scholastic Company Profile
Scholastic Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, publishes and distributes children's books worldwide. It operates through three segments: Children's Book Publishing and Distribution, Education, and International. The Children's Book Publishing and Distribution segment engages in the publication and distribution of children's books, e-books, media, and interactive products through its school book clubs and book fairs, and trade channel.
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