John Wiley & Sons Inc (NYSE: JW.A) in the fourth quarter of FY 17 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $0.82, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $0.54. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 4 percent to $452.2 million in the fourth quarter of FY 17, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $425.1 million. As a result, the stock rallied over 4.2% today (as of 10:16AM EDT on June 13th, 2017; Source: Google finance)
For FY 18, John Wiley & Sons is expecting revenue approximately even at constant currency with 2017’s $1.72 billion. The earnings per share for the full year is expected to be down low single digits on 2017’s $3.00. The analysts are expecting revenue of $1.72 billion and the earnings per share of $3.05 for the FY 18.
In addition, in FY 18, the Cash from Operations are expected to improve to $350 million or higher, from $315 million in FY17. The capex (TP&E + Composition and Product Development Spend) is projected to be slightly lower than FY17.
Furthermore, in FY18, John Wiley & Sons would near the completion of its ERP implementation and headquarters office transformation. The company is also in the process of a multi-year operational excellence initiative that focuses on achieving competitive benchmarks for quality, speed and customer service. Through organization simplification and process optimization, standardization, and automation, John Wiley & Sons expects to meaningfully improve operating income, EPS, and Free Cash Flow in Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. In the first quarter of fiscal 2018, JW.A will record a restructuring charge of approximately $25 million related to these activities, which will yield around $45 million in run rate savings starting in FY19, with roughly half of that realized in FY18. About half of the $45 million will be reinvested.
Meanwhile, in May, John Wiley & Sons has announced the resignation of President and CEO Mark Allin. Matthew Kissner, Chairman of the Board, was named interim CEO. The company has begun a search for Mr. Allin’s successor.
John Wiley & Sons in the fourth quarter have repurchased 282,728 shares at a cost of $15.0 million, an average of $52.90 per share. Nearly 3.8 million shares remain in the current authorized repurchase program announced in June 2016. JW.A stock has fallen 3.8% in the last three months (source: Google Finance).