Wiley saw profit improvement in results for the quarter ended January 31, 2025. Total revenue declined 12% in the quarter, to $405 million, but if sales from businesses that have been sold are excluded, sales were up about 1%. More importantly, Wiley reported operating income of $51.8 million in the quarter compared to a loss of $46.4 million in the period ended January 31, 2024.
Wiley CEO Matthew Kissner partly attributed the bottom line improvement to “re-engineering efforts” that “continue to deliver tangible results.” Moreover, he said that while the reorganization has led to “significant margin and cash flow improvement this year,” Wiley has raised its profit margin expectations for fiscal 2026. Wiley began an overhaul of its operations in June 2023 with the goal of creating a more focused, and profitable, company—an effort which now appears to be bearing fruit.
On the revenue side, Wiley’s research group saw revenue increase 4%, to $268 million. During the quarter, Wiley executed what it called “two landmark recurring revenue agreements,” one subscription deal with India which expanded access to Wiley materials to more than 6,000 institutions, and a second with Brazil which expanded access to over 430 institutions. In addition, the company reported that this quarter it expanded a previously executed content licensing project for training AI, valued at $9 million. Excluding AI, sales in the quarter rose 2%.
The learning group had a down quarter, with revenue falling 6%, to $137 million. The bulk of the decline came in the academic unit, where sales fell 10%, while sales in the professional division dipped 1%. Wiley did not report any new AI deals in the learning segment during the quarter, but pointed out that excluding previous AI agreements, revenue in the nine-month period would be down 0.6% using constant currency measures (which exclude the impact of fluctuations in exchange rates) compared a reported increase of 4%.
In remarks made to analysts, Kissner said Wiley has reached vertical licensing agreements with companies working in the pharmaceutical industrial sectors and that its pipeline is very active. He noted that in contrast with previous AI deals for developing Large Language Models, the new agreements are with companies using Wiley content to build their own tools and while the deals are smaller than the first ones with large tech companies, they offer the opportunity to work with more companies.
The main message Wiley executives wanted to leave with analysts was that it expects profit improvement to continue not only for the fiscal year ending this April but for fiscal 2026 as well. Fiscal 2025 sales are expected to increase about 3%, and its profit margin is projected to be at the high end of its 23% to 24% range compared to 22.8% in fiscal 2024. For fiscal 2026, Wiley reaffirmed low-to-mid single digit revenue growth and raised its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) target to over 25% from a range of 24 to 25%.
Commenting on current events, Kissner said Wiley is keeping "a close eye" on research funding from the federal government, but noted that such funding makes up only a small part of journal title output.
