WLYBJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Is the business good?
A genuinely good business: earnings fully cash-backed (1.5×) and margins widening.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Operating margin has widened over the past few years, the business is getting more profitable per dollar of sales.
A balanced mix of margins, efficiency, and leverage. ROE 21% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is WLYB?
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. earns 9.9% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 0.92 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 15%
Operating margin · Publishing median 15% · 12 months to Q1 2027
- Cash conversion
- 1.48×
Cash conversion · 1.31× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- −6.0%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | 9.6% |
| FY2022 | 11% |
| FY2023 | 2.8% |
| FY2024 | 2.8% |
| FY2025 | 13% |
| FY2026 | 17% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 75%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 15%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 12%
- Free cash flow margin
- 14%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.67B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $240M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $198M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 9.9%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.