Hennessy Advisors Inc. Buys New Shares in Scholastic Corporation $SCHL

Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 227,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,442,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Scholastic in the second quarter valued at about $43,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Scholastic by 458.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,593 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of Scholastic during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $115,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Scholastic by 127.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 5,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after buying an additional 2,912 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in shares of Scholastic in the fourth quarter valued at $211,000. Institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SCHL has been the topic of several analyst reports. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on shares of Scholastic from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Scholastic from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $42.00.

Insider Activity at Scholastic

In other Scholastic news, EVP Iole Lucchese sold 289,624 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.76, for a total value of $11,515,450.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 289,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,515,410.48. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Andres A. Alonso sold 2,112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.28, for a total transaction of $85,071.36. Following the sale, the director owned 21,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $853,492.92. This trade represents a 9.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 294,986 shares of company stock worth $11,731,334. Insiders own 12.77% of the company’s stock.

Scholastic Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of Scholastic stock opened at $38.96 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.15. Scholastic Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.68 and a 1 year high of $48.07. The company has a market capitalization of $734.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $476.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $517.06 million. Scholastic had a net margin of 3.58% and a return on equity of 5.29%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.6 EPS for the current year.

Scholastic Profile

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.