Palm Valley Capital Management, an investment management firm, released the “Palm Valley Capital Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, Palm Valley Capital Fund increased 4.00% compared to 15.12% and 14.07% gains for the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the Morningstar Small Cap Index, respectively. In 2023, the fund increased by 9.47% compared to 16.05% and 20.59% appreciation for the indexes respectively. The fund’s large allocation in Treasury bills contributed to the Fund’s 2023 performance being less volatile than benchmarks. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Palm Valley Capital Management featured stocks such as John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY). Headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) is a research and education company. On January 3, 2024, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) stock closed at $30.67 per share. One-month return of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) was 1.22%, and its shares lost 25.72% of their value over the last 52 weeks. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) has a market capitalization of $1.688 billion.
In its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter, Palm Valley Capital Management stated the following regarding John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY):
“We also purchased John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY), one of the world’s leading publishers of academic research. Founded in New York City as a small printing shop in 1807, Wiley is one of the oldest independent companies in the U.S. Early in its history, Wiley served legendary American writers including Herman Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and James Fennimore Cooper. The firm even supplied books to repopulate the Library of Congress after it was burned in the War of 1812. Today, Wiley is one of the leading global providers of academic journals, and it also sells books and courseware for higher education and professional roles.
The company’s stock has suffered from quality control issues tied to a 2021 acquisition, and Wiley’s CEO was pushed out abruptly in September while the firm works to divest non-core operations. Furthermore, a long-term decline in sales of printed textbooks has weighed on results, but soon this should no longer be a material headwind. The academic journals business at the heart of Wiley has strong profitability and high barriers to entry. The company generates consistent cash flow, and new management may focus more on returning capital to shareholders than value-destructive M&A. We picked up Wiley’s stock near multiyear lows when it was selling for 10x trailing free cash flow and at a dividend yield exceeding 4.5%.”
Close up of a person working on a laptop, researching, coding and deploying content publishing projects.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 19 hedge fund portfolios held John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) at the end of third quarter which was 13 in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
