Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Position in Scholastic Corporation $SCHL

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,593,981 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,017 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 6.27% of Scholastic worth $47,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Scholastic by 160.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 157,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,972,000 after buying an additional 96,998 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in Scholastic by 4.8% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 13,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Scholastic by 4.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 164,178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,100,000 after buying an additional 6,628 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in Scholastic by 457.8% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 81,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,537,000 after buying an additional 66,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in Scholastic by 16.8% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 23,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 3,365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on SCHL shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 3rd. B. Riley Financial increased their price target on shares of Scholastic from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Scholastic Price Performance

NASDAQ:SCHL opened at $39.70 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $38.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.66. Scholastic Corporation has a 1-year low of $16.78 and a 1-year high of $43.39. The firm has a market cap of $863.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.01 and a beta of 1.04.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.22. The company had revenue of $329.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.53 million. Scholastic had a return on equity of 2.47% and a net margin of 3.88%. As a group, analysts expect that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Scholastic Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Scholastic’s payout ratio is 32.26%.

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.