Horizon Investments LLC Invests $650,000 in Scholastic Corporation $SCHL

Horizon Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 21,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $650,000. Horizon Investments LLC owned 0.09% of Scholastic as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SCHL. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Scholastic by 879.3% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,159,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040,880 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in Scholastic in the third quarter worth $7,288,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Scholastic by 160.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 157,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,972,000 after acquiring an additional 96,998 shares in the last quarter. EVR Research LP increased its holdings in shares of Scholastic by 58.7% during the third quarter. EVR Research LP now owns 190,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,202,000 after acquiring an additional 70,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Scholastic by 21.5% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 386,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,594,000 after buying an additional 68,562 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SCHL has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen cut Scholastic from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Zacks Research raised Scholastic from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 3rd. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Scholastic from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Scholastic currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Scholastic Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Scholastic stock opened at $40.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $871.77 million, a P/E ratio of 16.17 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $37.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.24. Scholastic Corporation has a 52-week low of $16.78 and a 52-week high of $43.39.

Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.22. The business 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, equities research analysts forecast that Scholastic Corporation will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Scholastic declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Friday, March 20th that permits the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 23% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Scholastic Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 30th. Scholastic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.