Wiley's Fiscal 2025 Boosted by AI, Cost Cuts

HOBOKEN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wiley (NYSE: WLY) today reported results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 30, 2025.

FISCAL 2025 HIGHLIGHTS

• GAAP performance vs. prior year: Operating Income of $221 million vs. $52 million and Diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $1.53 vs. ($3.65)
• Exceeded Adjusted EPS guidance, delivered at top end of range for Adjusted EBITDA margin, and achieved Free Cash Flow outlook
• Delivered Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA margin growth in both Research and Learning segments
• Achieved Adjusted Operating Margin expansion of 300 basis points
• Executed AI content licensing project this quarter with a third large tech company; $40 million in total AI licensing revenue realized in Fiscal 2025 compared to $23 million in Fiscal 2024
• Drove a 34% increase in share repurchases and raised dividend for 31 ^st consecutive year

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY

"We delivered another strong year of execution as we met or exceeded our financial commitments, drove profitable growth in our core, expanded margins and free cash flow, and extended further into the corporate market through AI licensing and partnership, science analytics, and knowledge services," said Matthew Kissner, President and CEO. "Our multi-year journey of continuous improvement and innovation is yielding material gains in profitable revenue growth, margin expansion, and cash generation, and we remain steadfast and confident in our continued progress."

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Please see accompanying financial tables for more detail.

• Q4 reported revenue of $443 million vs. $468 million due to foregone revenue from divestitures; Adjusted Revenue (excluding divestitures) essentially even with prior year at constant currency as expected; Research Publishing +4% constant currency.
• Q4 Operating Income of $76 million vs. $69 million; Adjusted Operating Income +15% with margin up 260bps. Diluted EPS of $1.25 vs. $0.46; Adjusted EPS +14% and Adjusted EBITDA essentially even.
• Full year reported revenue of $1,678 million vs. $1,873 million due to foregone revenue from divested businesses; Adjusted Revenue (excluding divestitures) +3% at constant currency.
• Full year Operating Income of $221 million vs. $52 million; Adjusted Operating Income +29% with margin up 300 basis points. Diluted EPS of $1.53 vs. ($3.65); Adjusted EPS +31% to $3.64, Adjusted EBITDA +8% to $398 million, and Cash from Operations of $203 million vs. $208 million; Free Cash Flow +10% to $126 million.

RESEARCH

• Q4 Research revenue of $281 million was up 4% as reported and 3% at constant currency driven by solid growth in recurring revenue publishing models (calendar year 2025 journal renewals) and open access offsetting continued softness in backfiles, archives, and other ancillary products. Q4 Adjusted EBITDA of $97 million was up 4% as reported and at constant currency due to revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter rose modestly to 34.7%.
• Full year Research revenue was up 3% as reported and at constant currency driven by growth in publishing and solutions. Research Adjusted EBITDA was up 4% or 5% at constant currency with margin up 30 basis points to 32.1%. Key performance indicators remained strong for the year, with submissions up 19% and output up 8%.

LEARNING

• Q4 Learning revenue of $162 million was down 5% as reported and at constant currency as expected due to a $23 million AI licensing agreement in the prior year, partially offset by growth in Academic and additional AI licensing revenue this quarter. Academic growth excluding AI licensing was driven by strong demand for inclusive access and digital courseware. Professional performance excluding AI licensing was impacted by retail channel softness. Q4 Adjusted EBITDA of $70 million for the quarter was down 6% as reported and at constant currency due to lower revenues. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 43.0% compared to 43.5% in prior year period.
• Full year Learning revenue of $585 million was up 2% as reported and at constant currency driven by growth in Academic and AI licensing. Learning Adjusted EBITDA of $219 million for the year was up 9% as reported and at constant currency. Adjusted EBITDA margin rose 250 basis points to 37.4%.

CORPORATE EXPENSES

"Corporate Expenses" are the portion of shared services costs not allocated to segments.

• Q4 Corporate Expenses declined by 8% or 7% at constant currency due to lower depreciation and amortization, or 3% on an Adjusted EBITDA basis at constant currency due to restructuring savings.
• Full year Corporate Expenses declined by 3% as reported and at constant currency due to lower depreciation and amortization, but rose 2% on an Adjusted EBITDA basis at constant currency due to enterprise modernization.

BALANCE SHEET, CASH FLOW, AND CAPITAL ALLOCATION

• Net Debt-to-EBITDA Ratio was 1.8 compared to 1.7 in the year-ago period.
• Net Cash provided by Operating Activities was $203 million compared to $208 million primarily due to spend on cloud-based solutions related to targeted enterprise modernization work. This spend is capitalized and amortized, like capex, but reported in this section of the cash flow statement. Otherwise, cash flow benefited from higher adjusted EBITDA and favorable working capital movements.
• Free Cash Flow was up 10% to $126 million primarily driven by lower capex. Fiscal 2025 capex was $77 million vs. $93 million in prior year, however, capitalization between the two years were comparable when capex and cloud-based solution spend are combined.
• Returns to Shareholders: Wiley allocated $137 million toward dividends and share repurchases, up from $122 million in the prior year. $60 million was allocated to share repurchases at an average cost basis of $44.16. This allocation is up from $45 million in the prior year period.
• Divestiture Proceeds: After the year closed, Wiley received $120 million in cash proceeds related to the University Services divestiture, with the total outstanding note paid in full.

• Adjusted Revenue - growth expectation driven by demand to publish and Calendar Year 2025 journal renewal growth in Research Publishing, steady market trends in Academic, and continued demand for our content and data in AI development, partially offset by large AI agreements in prior year.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin - initial margin target was a range of 24 to 25% (January 2024). Wiley raised the target to 25%+ in March 2025, and this quarter to a range of 25.5% to 26.5%. Outlook is driven by anticipated cost savings, efficiency gains, and revenue growth.
• Adjusted EPS - growth expectation driven by higher expected Adjusted Operating Income.
• Free Cash Flow - growth outlook driven by expected Adjusted EBITDA growth, lower restructuring payments, and favorable working capital.

EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

Scheduled for today, June 17 at 10:00 am (ET). Access webcast at Investor Relations at investors.wiley.com, or directly at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/978555203. 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 and investors.wiley.com.

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 2026 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 2026 in connection with our multiyear Global Restructuring Program 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; and (xiii) other factors detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events.

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 2026 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.

Source: John Wiley and Sons