Wiley Reports Second Quarter 2025 Results

Wiley (NYSE: WLY), one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning, today reported results for the second quarter ended October 31, 2024.

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

• High-single digit revenue growth in Learning from favorable market conditions and AI licensing
• Low single digit revenue growth in Research from solid demand to publish and modest improvement in Research Solutions offsetting a large year-over-year swing in legacy print and licensing revenue
• Continued strong margin improvement and EPS growth

SECOND QUARTER PERFORMANCE

• GAAP Results: Revenue of $427 million vs. $493 million in prior year due to foregone revenue from divested businesses, Operating Income of $64 million (+39%), and EPS of $0.74 (+$1.09)
• Adjusted Results at Constant Currency (excludes the impact of divested businesses): Adjusted Revenue of $423 million (+3%), Adjusted Operating Income of $69 million (+32%), Adjusted EBITDA of $106 million (+14%), and Adjusted EPS of $0.97 (+36%)

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY

“Continuous improvement is a way of life for us now, and it’s beginning to pay off in our quality growth and margin expansion,” said Matthew Kissner, Wiley President and CEO. “Learning has had a good year so far, both Academic and Professional, and Research delivered low-single digit growth with leading indicators and favorable comparisons signaling a better second half ahead. Additionally, we continue to see interest from tech companies and other corporate LLM developers for our high-value content and data to train and commercialize AI models.”

Research

• Revenue of $262 million was up 2% or 1% at constant currency, with strong growth in gold open access, modest growth in institutional models, and improved solutions performance offsetting a year-over-year decline in legacy print and licensing revenue. Year-to-date, Research revenue was up 2% as reported and at constant currency.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $82 million was up 1% as reported and at constant currency due to revenue performance partially offset by investments to drive volume growth and publishing innovation. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 31.3% compared to 31.6% in the prior year period.

Learning

• Revenue of $162 million was up 8% or 5% at constant currency and excluding one-time AI licensing revenue of $4 million. Strong underlying performance was driven by 11% growth for Professional or 8% at constant currency and ex-AI due to an improved retail channel environment and increased sell through. Academic saw 5% growth or 3% growth at constant currency and ex-AI driven by zyBooks digital courseware, inclusive access, and licensing. Year-to-date, Learning revenue was up 11%, or 2% at constant currency and ex-AI.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $67 million was up 24% or 23% at constant currency mainly due to revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 41.3% compared to 36.2% in the prior year period.

Corporate Expenses

• Adjusted Corporate Expenses of $43 million on an Adjusted EBITDA basis was up 1% or flat at constant currency. Year-to-date, Corporate Expenses on an Adjusted EBITDA basis was up 1% reported and at constant currency.

Businesses Held for Sale or Sold (HFS)

Our Held for Sale or Sold segment reflects the performance of those businesses for the periods owned. All businesses in this reporting segment have been sold. Wiley University Services was completed on January 1, 2024. The sale of Wiley Edge, with the exception of its India operation, was completed on May 31, 2024. The sale of Wiley Edge's India operation was completed on August 31, 2024. The sale of CrossKnowledge was also completed on August 31, 2024.

EPS

• GAAP EPS was $0.74 compared to a loss of ($0.35) in the prior year period. The year-over-year variance is largely due to higher impairment and restructuring charges in the prior year and foregone net income from businesses sold.
• Adjusted EPS of $0.97 was up 36% at constant currency due to higher Adjusted Operating Income and accrued interest income from divestitures.

Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Capital Allocation (YTD)

• Net Debt-to-EBITDA Ratio (Trailing Twelve Months) at quarter end was 2.2 compared to 2.0 in the year-ago period.
• Net Cash Used in Operating Activities was $94 million compared to $84 million in the prior year period mainly due to higher annual incentive compensation payments for prior year performance and the cash earnings impact from divested assets. Wiley does not provide adjusted cash flow metrics; results include sold businesses. Wiley’s regular use of cash in the first half of the fiscal year is driven by the timing of cash collections for annual journal subscriptions, which are concentrated in Q3 and Q4.
• Free Cash Flow less Product Development Spending was a use of $130 million compared to a use of $132 million in the prior year, with higher annual incentive compensation payments for prior year performance offsetting lower capex. Capex of $36 million was below prior year by $12 million due to timing.
• Returns to Shareholders: Wiley allocated $64 million toward dividends and share repurchases, up from $61 million in the prior year, with $25 million used to acquire 557 thousand shares at an average cost per share of $44.89. In June 2024, Wiley raised its dividend for the 31st consecutive year.

FISCAL YEAR 2025 GROWTH OUTLOOK

Wiley is reaffirming its Fiscal 2025 growth outlook based on first half results and second half indicators. Wiley’s revenue outlook is driven by favorable demand trends and performance indicators. Wiley’s earnings outlook is driven by expected revenue growth and cost savings, while reflecting reinvestments to scale and optimize Research, modernize infrastructure and expand GenAI content licensing and capabilities. Wiley’s cash flow outlook is driven by lower restructuring payments and favorable working capital partially offset by a year-over-year swing in incentive compensation payments.

Quarterly phasing in the second half of the year: The Company's projected growth in the second half of its fiscal year is expected to occur in Q4 due to strong momentum and favorable comparisons in Research.

The Company remains on track with its Fiscal 2026 targets.

EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

Scheduled for today, December 5 at 10:00 am (ET). Access webcast at Investor Relations at investors.wiley.com, or directly at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/593717942. U.S. callers, please dial (888) 210-3346 and enter the participant code 2521217#. International callers, please dial (646) 960-0253 and enter the participant code 2521217#.

ABOUT WILEY

Wiley (NYSE: WLY) is one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning. Our industry-leading content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners, including researchers, students, instructors, professionals, institutions, and corporations. We enable knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Wiley provides non-GAAP financial measures and performance results such as “Adjusted EPS,” “Adjusted Operating Income,” “Adjusted EBITDA,” “Adjusted Income before Taxes,” “Adjusted Income Tax Provision,” “Adjusted Effective Income Tax Rate,” “Free Cash Flow less Product Development Spending,” “organic revenue,” “Adjusted Revenue,” and results on a Constant Currency basis to assess underlying business performance and trends. Management believes non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude the impact of restructuring charges and credits and certain other items, and the impact of divestitures and acquisitions provide a useful comparable basis to analyze operating results and earnings. See the reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures and explanations of the uses of non-GAAP measures in the supplementary information. We have not provided our 2025 outlook for the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures, as they are not available without unreasonable effort due to the high variability, complexity, and low visibility with respect to certain items, including restructuring charges and credits, gains and losses on foreign currency, and other gains and losses. These items are uncertain, depend on various factors, and could be material to our consolidated results computed in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company's operations, performance, and financial condition. Reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that are inherently subject to uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of the Company and are subject to change based on many important factors. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) the level of investment in new technologies and products; (ii) subscriber renewal rates for the Company's journals; (iii) the financial stability and liquidity of journal subscription agents; (iv) the consolidation of book wholesalers and retail accounts; (v) the market position and financial stability of key online retailers; (vi) the seasonal nature of the Company's educational business and the impact of the used book market; (vii) worldwide economic and political conditions; (viii) the Company's ability to protect its copyrights and other intellectual property worldwide (ix) the ability of the Company to successfully integrate acquired operations and realize expected opportunities; (x) the ability to realize operating savings over time and in fiscal year 2025 in connection with our multiyear Global Restructuring Program and planned and completed dispositions; (xi) cyber risk and the failure to maintain the integrity of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, or those of third parties with which we do business; (xii) as a result of acquisitions, we have and may record a significant amount of goodwill and other identifiable intangible assets and we may never realize the full carrying value of these assets; (xiii) our ability to leverage artificial intelligence technologies in our products and services, including generative artificial intelligence, large language models, machine learning, and other artificial intelligence tools; and (xiv) other factors detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

CATEGORY: EARNINGS RELEASES

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

EXPLANATION OF USAGE OF NON-GAAP PERFORMANCE MEASURES

In this earnings release and supplemental information, management may present the following non-GAAP performance measures:

• Adjusted Earnings Per Share (Adjusted EPS);
• Free Cash Flow less Product Development Spending;
• Adjusted Revenue;
• Adjusted Operating Income and margin;
• Adjusted Income Before Taxes;
• Adjusted Income Tax Provision;
• Adjusted Effective Tax Rate;
• EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and margin;
• Organic revenue; and
• Results on a constant currency basis.

Management uses these non-GAAP performance measures as supplemental indicators of our operating performance and financial position as well as for internal reporting and forecasting purposes, when publicly providing our outlook, to evaluate our performance and calculate incentive compensation.

We present these non-GAAP performance measures in addition to US GAAP financial results because we believe that these non-GAAP performance measures provide useful information to certain investors and financial analysts for operational trends and comparisons over time. The use of these non-GAAP performance measures may also provide a consistent basis to evaluate operating profitability and performance trends by excluding items that we do not consider to be controllable activities for this purpose.

The performance metric used by our chief operating decision maker to evaluate performance of our reportable segments is Adjusted Operating Income. We present both Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted EBITDA for each of our reportable segments as we believe Adjusted EBITDA provides additional useful information to certain investors and financial analysts for operational trends and comparisons over time. It removes the impact of depreciation and amortization expense, as well as presents a consistent basis to evaluate operating profitability and compare our financial performance to that of our peer companies and competitors.

For example:

• Adjusted EPS, Adjusted Revenue, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Income Before Taxes, Adjusted Income Tax Provision, Adjusted Effective Tax Rate, Adjusted EBITDA, and organic revenue (excluding acquisitions) provide a more comparable basis to analyze operating results and earnings and are measures commonly used by shareholders to measure our performance.
• Free Cash Flow less Product Development Spending helps assess our ability, over the long term, to create value for our shareholders as it represents cash available to repay debt, pay common stock dividends, and fund share repurchases and acquisitions.
• Results on a constant currency basis remove distortion from the effects of foreign currency movements to provide better comparability of our business trends from period to period. We measure our performance excluding the impact of foreign currency (or at constant currency), which means that we apply the same foreign currency exchange rates for the current and equivalent prior period.

In addition, we have historically provided these or similar non-GAAP performance measures and understand that some investors and financial analysts find this information helpful in analyzing our operating margins and net income, and in comparing our financial performance to that of our peer companies and competitors. Based on interactions with investors, we also believe that our non-GAAP performance measures are regarded as useful to our investors as supplemental to our US GAAP financial results, and that there is no confusion regarding the adjustments or our operating performance to our investors due to the comprehensive nature of our disclosures.

We have not provided our 2025 outlook for the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measures, as they are not available without unreasonable effort due to the high variability, complexity, and low visibility with respect to certain items, including restructuring charges and credits, gains and losses on foreign currency, and other gains and losses. These items are uncertain, depend on various factors, and could be material to our consolidated results computed in accordance with US GAAP.

Non-GAAP performance measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by US GAAP and therefore may not be comparable to the calculation of similar measures used by other companies and should not be viewed as alternatives to measures of financial results under US GAAP. The adjusted metrics have limitations as analytical tools, and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, US GAAP information. It does not purport to represent any similarly titled US GAAP information and is not an indicator of our performance under US GAAP. Non-GAAP financial metrics that we present may not be comparable with similarly titled measures used by others. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on these non-GAAP measures.

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