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Scholastic$SCHL · filed: saw revenue fall 2.7% in FY2026 to $1.6BNew shipTrillion Score 566Fall Risk MediumNext year $1.3B–$1.8B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What Scholastic filed
Saw revenue fall 2.7% in FY2026 to $1.6 billion, operating margin 1.0% against a 10.5% median for books: publishing or publishing & printing, equity 43.4% of assets. Every figure links to the filing it came from on Scholastic’s card. New ship: no warning signs. Trillion Score 566, #3 of 14 in its field; Fall Risk Medium (how it is measured).
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2026-05-31 between $1.3B and $1.8B, an 80% range sealed on 27 Sept 2026 · receipt #7f26ec · graded in public by the revenue in Scholastic’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
Scholastic commits half its cash to buyback at **4.5%** premium, testing whether insiders see margin recovery or just expensive shares.
$200 million
of its common stock at prices between
$23.00
per share
4.5%
premium to Tuesday's closing price of
$414 million
in cash and equivalents as of August 31
Scholastic Corporation announced a modified Dutch auction tender offer to repurchase up to $200 million of its common stock at prices between $20.00 and $23.00 per share. The offer expires December 19, 2024, with settlement expected by December 27. The high end of the range represents a 4.5% premium to Tuesday's closing price of $22.00.
The company will accept shares on a pro-rata basis if tenders exceed the cap. BofA Securities is serving as dealer manager. Scholastic had $414 million in cash and equivalents as of August 31, 2024, against $115 million in long-term debt. Free cash flow in fiscal 2024 reached $187 million, up 23% year-over-year, driven by inventory normalization and tighter working capital management.
This marks Scholastic's first tender offer since 2019, when the company bought back $75 million at prices between $35.00 and $40.00 per share. The current offer commits nearly half the balance sheet's cash position to equity retirement. That shift comes as the company exits a two-year restructuring that closed 15 distribution centers and cut 8% of headcount. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved 210 basis points to 11.2% in the most recent quarter, but remain below the 13.5% average Scholastic maintained between 2015 and 2019.
The tender targets a stock trading 38% below its five-year average multiple of 12.1x forward earnings. Shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by 1,840 basis points over the past three years as school budgets tightened and book fair revenues declined 6% annually. The company's classroom and supplemental materials division, which generates 42% of revenue, posted flat sales in fiscal 2024 despite enrollment growth of 1.8% across U.S. K-12 schools.
Allocators should note the timing. Scholastic typically generates 68% of annual free cash flow in the fiscal second and third quarters, driven by back-to-school orders and holiday book fair cycles. Management has guided to $225-$250 million in fiscal 2025 free cash flow, implying capacity for another $100-$125 million in buybacks or acquisitions by August 2025. The company also maintained its $0.60 annual dividend, yielding 2.7%.
Watch for tender participation rates disclosed by December 23. Insider ownership sits at 19.4%, concentrated in the Robinson family, which has not publicly indicated tendering intentions. If participation falls below 50% of shares sought, it signals insider confidence in near-term operational upside, likely tied to new distribution agreements with Amazon and Target launching in Q1 2025. If participation exceeds 90%, it confirms broad shareholder exhaustion with the equity story. The company reports fiscal Q2 earnings on December 19, the day the tender expires.
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