Thursday, book publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (JW-A, JW-B), reported a decline in fourth-quarter earnings, reflecting foreign currency fluctuations and a drop in revenues. Further, the company said it expects a growth in adjusted earnings for the fiscal year 2010.
The Hoboken, New Jersey-based company's net earnings for the fourth quarter slid to $24.50 million or $0.42 per share from $29.00 million or $0.49 per share in the prior-year quarter.
On average, two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.44 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time charges and gains.
Quarterly revenues dropped 7% to $403.36 million from $432.40 million in the year-ago quarter. Results for the quarter reflected a strong performance from the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly segment, including the resolution of journal billing delays noted in the third quarter, offset by continued softness in Professional/Trade and a decline in Higher Education revenue, as expected.
On a segmental basis, scientific, technical, medical and scholarly segment revenues for the quarter dropped 2% year-over-year to $273.00 million, Professional/Trade segment revenues declined 15% to $97.04 million and Higher Education revenues decreased 13% to $33.54 million from the year-ago quarter.
Operating income for the quarter decreased 16% to $41.00 million from $48.20 million reported in the same quarter last year.
For the full year, net income was essentially flat at $128.26 million from last year. On a per share basis, earnings dropped a modest 1% to $2.15 a share from $2.17 a share last year. Revenues for the fiscal year 2009 decreased 4% to $1.61 billion from $2.00 billion in the previous year.
Looking ahead to the fiscal year 2010, John Wiley & Sons currently forecasts earnings growth of about 10% off a base of $2.30 a share, excluding foreign exchange transaction losses of $11.8 million or $0.15 a share in the previous year. The company, while projecting revenues to grow on a currency neutral basis, however, noted that top line results would be highly dependent on global economic cues.
Analysts currently expect the company to report earnings of $2.63 for the full year.
JW-A closed Wednesday's trading at $33.47 on the NYSE, while JW-B closed at $33.44 on Tuesday on the NYSE.
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