John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) vs. USA Today (NYSE:TDAY) Critical Review

USA Today (NYSE:TDAY) and John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for USA Today and John Wiley & Sons, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
USA Today	1	1	2	0	2.25
John Wiley & Sons	0	2	0	0	2.00

USA Today presently has a consensus target price of $9.03, indicating a potential upside of 28.93%. Given USA Today’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe USA Today is more favorable than John Wiley & Sons.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.7% of USA Today shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.9% of John Wiley & Sons shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of USA Today shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of John Wiley & Sons shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares USA Today and John Wiley & Sons”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
USA Today	$2.23 billion	0.46	$1.75 million	($0.30)	-23.33
John Wiley & Sons	$1.67 billion	1.60	$221.62 million	$3.78	13.93

John Wiley & Sons has lower revenue, but higher earnings than USA Today. USA Today is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than John Wiley & Sons, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares USA Today and John Wiley & Sons’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
USA Today	-1.81%	-21.13%	-1.85%
John Wiley & Sons	11.90%	27.99%	8.16%

Volatility and Risk

USA Today has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John Wiley & Sons has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

John Wiley & Sons beats USA Today on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About USA Today

Gannett Co Inc. invests in, owns, and operates local media assets in the United States. The company’s principal products include 125 daily newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 1.4 million; 314 weekly newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 315,000 and total free circulation of approximately 1.9 million; 124 shoppers with total circulation of approximately 3.0 million; and 538 locally-focused Websites, including Internet and mobile devices with approximately 224 million page views per month. Its principal products also comprise 2 yellow page directories with a total distribution of approximately 230,000 that cover a population of approximately 411,000 people; 68 business publications; and Propel digital marketing and business services. In addition, the company produces niche publications that address specific local market interests, such as recreation, sports, healthcare, and real estate. Further, it provides print and online products that offer local market news and information on various topics comprising local news and politics, community and regional events, youth sports, opinion and editorial pages, local schools, obituaries, weddings, and police reports, as well as print and digital advertising products, as well as commercial printing and regional business-oriented publications services. The company reaches approximately 20 million people per week; and serves approximately 220,000 business customers. New Media Investment Group Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in New York, New York.

About John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. engages in the provision of research and learning materials. It operates through the following segments: Research, Learning, and Held for Sale or Sold. The Research segment consists of research publishing and research solutions. The Learning segment includes academic and professional reporting lines and consists of publishing and related knowledge solutions. The Held for Sale or Sold segment offers businesses held-for-sale including Wiley Edge and CrossKnowledge, University Services and Tuition Manager, and Test Prep and Advancement Courses. The company was founded by Charles Wiley in 1807 and is headquartered in Hoboken, NJ.