NEW YORK, June 3, 2026, 05:30 (EDT)
- Scholastic was last quoted at $42.75, essentially flat, before the regular Nasdaq session.
- The stock is trading above the $40 price Scholastic paid in its April tender offer.
- The next test is whether buybacks and property-sale cash can offset soft school spending and uneven book-release timing.
Scholastic Corporation shares were little changed before the U.S. open on Wednesday, holding at $42.75 as investors looked past a quiet news tape and kept focus on the children’s publisher’s recent share repurchase push. The company’s market value stood just under $930 million.
That matters now because there was no fresh company release to reset the story overnight. Scholastic’s investor-relations site showed its latest press release as the April 23 final results of a modified Dutch auction tender offer, a buyback format in which shareholders offer stock for sale within a price range and the company sets one purchase price.
Nasdaq lists June 3 as a normal trading day, with regular trading running from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET and pre-market trading, the session before the formal open, from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ET. The early quote therefore gave only a thin read on demand before full liquidity arrived.
Scholastic said on April 23 it accepted 2.83 million shares at $40 each, for a total cost of $113.4 million before fees and expenses. Those shares represented about 13.7% of the stock outstanding as of April 19.
At the latest quote, the stock stood about 6.9% above that tender price. That keeps the buyback in view: not as a ceiling for the shares, at least for now, but as the clearest recent signal of how management is using cash.
The money came after Scholastic sold and leased back property, including its New York City headquarters and a Jefferson City, Missouri distribution center. A sale-leaseback means a company sells an asset but keeps using it as a tenant. Scholastic said the transactions generated $481 million in gross proceeds and an estimated $401 million after taxes, fees and other costs; board chair Iole Lucchese said the move helped unlock value from “non-operating assets,” while Chief Executive Peter Warwick said it brought “significant liquidity.” Scholastic Corporation
Shareholder returns are not limited to repurchases. Scholastic’s board declared a quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share for the fiscal fourth quarter, payable June 15 to holders of record as of April 30.
The sector read was mixed. John Wiley & Sons, another education and publishing name, was quoted up 1.2%, while Pearson’s U.S.-listed shares slipped 0.5%, offering no clear single direction for the group.
But the downside case is still plain. Scholastic said fiscal third-quarter revenue fell 2% to $329.1 million, operating loss widened to $26.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, after company adjustments — fell to zero from $6 million. Warwick said the quarter was “consistent with expectations” and that Book Fairs “performed solidly,” but the company also pointed to softness in Education and tougher comparisons in Trade publishing. PR Newswire
If school districts delay purchases, or if the next publishing slate does not land cleanly, the buyback may not be enough to support the stock. For now, Scholastic’s shares are telling a narrower story: capital returns are doing work, while the operating recovery still has to prove itself.
