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SCHL, Scholastic Corporation

Publishing consumer brand Cyclical

Scholastic Corporation is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, a leading provider of print and digital instructional materials for grades pre-kindergarten to grade 12 and a producer of entertaining literary and educational children's media.

Scholastic Corporation creates quality print, digital and audio books, learning materials and programs, classroom magazines and other products that, in combination, offer children, families and educators engaging and comprehensive solutions to support children's learning and reading both at home and at school.

Scholastic has operations in the United States and throughout the world including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Asia and, through its export business, sells products in approximately 145 international locations.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

SCHL · Scholastic Corporation

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$1.6B

−2.7% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $1.6B 5-yr avg $1.6B

Gross margin 56% 5-yr avg 55%

Operating margin 1.0% 5-yr avg 3.0%

ROIC 1% 5-yr avg 4%

Owner-earnings margin 0% 5-yr avg 5%

Free cash flow margin 0% 5-yr avg 5%

Next report Est. 9/16–9/22 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late August · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~20 days after · the wire records it on arrival

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

Situation: Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 54% and operating margin about 1.2% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. The operating margin has swung widely — from −6.0% to 6.2% — on a steadier 54% gross margin, so what moves it sits below the gross line, in operating spend and one-off charges more than in the cost of the product itself. Inventory runs near 17% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 1%, above 15% in 0 of 9 years). By owner earnings: roughly 3% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

24% of revenue comes from outside the United States.

Revenue by geography, FY2026

United States76%$1.2B
International24%$375M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMMay 2026
											Income statement
$1.7B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.5B	$1.3B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.6B	RevenueRevenue
$927M	$884M	$874M	$778M	$672M	$877M	$918M	$885M	$907M	$892M	$892M	Gross profitGross prof.
53%	54%	53%	52%	52%	53%	54%	56%	56%	56%	56%	Gross marginGross mgn
45%	47%	48%	51%	48%	44%	44%	51%	51%	51%	51%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$89M	$56M	$25M	($89M)	($23M)	$97M	$106M	$15M	$16M	$15M	$15M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
5.1%	3.4%	1.5%	−6.0%	−1.7%	5.9%	6.2%	0.9%	1.0%	1.0%	1.0%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$88M	($2M)	$26M	($90M)	($18M)	$90M	$112M	$16M	($1M)	$85M	—	Pretax incomePretax
$52M	($5M)	$16M	($44M)	($11M)	$81M	$86M	$12M	($2M)	$57M	$57M	Net incomeNet inc.
40%	—	40%	—	—	10%	23%	25%	—	33%	33%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$141M	$142M	$116M	$2M	$71M	$226M	$149M	$155M	$124M	$51M	$51M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$36M	$42M	$53M	$58M	$58M	$55M	$53M	$55M	$55M	$48M	$48M	Depreciation & amortizationD&A
$43M	$94M	$39M	($16M)	$17M	$83M	($400K)	$77M	$62M	($62M)	($62M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$66M	$122M	$95M	$63M	$47M	$42M	$62M	$58M	$52M	$48M	$48M	CapexCapex
3.8%	7.5%	5.7%	4.2%	3.6%	2.6%	3.6%	3.7%	3.2%	3.1%	3.1%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$76M	$20M	$21M	($61M)	$24M	$184M	$87M	$96M	$72M	$3M	$3M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
4.3%	1.2%	1.3%	−4.1%	1.8%	11.2%	5.1%	6.1%	4.4%	0.2%	0.2%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$76M	$20M	$21M	($61M)	$24M	$184M	$87M	$96M	$72M	$3M	$3M	Free cash flowFCF
4.3%	1.2%	1.3%	−4.1%	1.8%	11.2%	5.1%	6.1%	4.4%	0.2%	0.2%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$10M	$4M	$14M	$1M	$0	$0	$11M	$6M	$176M	$0	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$21M	$21M	$21M	$21M	$21M	$21M	$26M	$25M	$23M	$20M	$20M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$7M	$27M	$9M	$36M	$0	$33M	$132M	$158M	$70M	$266M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
($93M)	($162M)	($147M)	($96M)	($51M)	($43M)	($100M)	($90M)	($253M)	$406M	—	Investing cash flowInv. cash
($4M)	($32M)	($26M)	$154M	($52M)	($229M)	($140M)	($176M)	$137M	($446M)	—	Financing cash flowFin. cash
($100K)	$300K	($1M)	($800K)	$5M	($4M)	($2M)	$400K	$2M	$200K	—	Exchange-rate effectFX
$44M	($52M)	($58M)	$60M	($27M)	($50M)	($92M)	($111M)	$10M	$11M	—	Change in cashΔ cash
6%	—	2%	-7%	-2%	10%	9%	1%	1%	1%	1%	ROICROIC
4%	-0%	1%	-4%	-1%	7%	7%	1%	-0%	8%	8%	Return on equityROE
2%	−2%	−0%	−5%	−3%	5%	5%	−1%	−3%	5%	5%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$444M	$392M	$334M	$394M	$367M	$317M	$225M	$114M	$124M	$135M	$135M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$199M	$205M	$236M	$240M	$256M	$299M	$278M	$235M	$273M	$236M	$236M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$283M	$295M	$293M	$271M	$270M	$281M	$335M	$264M	$250M	$265M	$265M	InventoryInvent.
$141M	$199M	$195M	$154M	$138M	$162M	$171M	$139M	$157M	$144M	$144M	Accounts payablePayables
$341M	$301M	$334M	$357M	$388M	$419M	$442M	$361M	$366M	$357M	$357M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$971M	$958M	$961M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$996M	$893M	$677M	$725M	$721M	$721M	Current assetsCur. assets
$387M	$446M	$542M	$502M	$696M	$620M	$602M	$535M	$626M	$586M	$586M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.5×	2.1×	1.8×	2.1×	1.5×	1.6×	1.5×	1.3×	1.2×	1.2×	1.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$475M	$556M	$578M	$577M	$557M	$517M	$521M	$512M	$516M	$202M	—	Net PP&ENet PP&E
$119M	$119M	$125M	$125M	$126M	$125M	$133M	$133M	$199M	$199M	$199M	GoodwillGoodwill
$1.8B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$1.9B	$1.9B	$1.7B	$2.0B	$1.7B	$1.7B	Total assetsAssets
$6M	$8M	$7M	$219M	$190M	$7M	$6M	$6M	$256M	$81M	$81M	Total debtDebt
($438M)	($384M)	($327M)	($175M)	($176M)	($310M)	($219M)	($108M)	$132M	($54M)	($54M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
37.2×	27.8×	11.4×	-29.5×	-3.7×	33.6×	75.9×	7.6×	0.9×	1.1×	1.1×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
—	$0	$1M	$1M	$2M	$1M	$2M	$0	—	—	—	Noncontrolling interestsNCI
$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.0B	$947M	$751M	$751M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.6%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
35.4M	35.0M	35.8M	34.6M	34.3M	35.6M	34.7M	30.4M	27.6M	24.2M	24.2M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$49.20	$46.53	$46.20	$42.98	$37.91	$46.15	$49.11	$52.29	$58.89	$65.37	$65.37	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.48	$-0.14	$0.44	$-1.27	$-0.32	$2.27	$2.49	$0.40	$-0.07	$2.34	$2.34	EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.14	$0.57	$0.60	$-1.75	$0.69	$5.17	$2.50	$3.16	$2.61	$0.10	$0.10	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.14	$0.57	$0.60	$-1.75	$0.69	$5.17	$2.50	$3.16	$2.61	$0.10	$0.10	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.59	$0.60	$0.59	$0.60	$0.60	$0.58	$0.74	$0.81	$0.82	$0.83	$0.83	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$1.86	$3.47	$2.65	$1.81	$1.38	$1.18	$1.79	$1.92	$1.89	$2.00	$2.00	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$36.95	$37.74	$35.52	$34.08	$34.43	$34.19	$33.51	$33.49	$34.29	$31.02	$31.02	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+3.2%/yr	+11.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−28.6%/yr	−31.7%/yr
EPS	+5.3%/yr	—
Dividends / share	+3.9%/yr	+6.6%/yr
Capital spending / share	+0.8%/yr	+7.8%/yr
Book value / share	−1.9%/yr	−2.1%/yr

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business reported $57M of profit but $3M of owner earnings: $54M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$57M

Owner earnings$3M · 0% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	$57M	($2M)	$12M	$86M	$81M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$48M	+$55M	+$55M	+$53M	+$55M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$9M	+$9M	+$11M	+$11M	+$8M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$62M	+$62M	+$77M	−$400K	+$83M
Cash from operations	$51M	$124M	$155M	$149M	$226M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$48M	−$52M	−$58M	−$62M	−$42M
Owner earnings	$3M	$72M	$96M	$87M	$184M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	0%	4%	6%	5%	11%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $9M), owner earnings is nearer ($6M).

Much of fiscal 2026's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 1.1×

Thin

Operating income $15M ÷ interest expense $14M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$53M

Net cash

Cash $135M − debt $82M

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $53M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 118d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 55 + DIO 140 − DPO 76 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 1%

Below average through the cycle

9-yr median, range -7%–10%; 1% latest = NOPAT $10M ÷ invested capital $697M

Industry peers: median 8%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 9 years (it ran 1% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 0%

Thin, recently turned positive

latest $3M = operating cash $51M − maintenance capex $48M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 3%)

Industry peers: median 9%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 0% of revenue this year, a 3% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $9M of SBC) leaves ($6M).
Are earnings backed by cash? 0.90×

Mostly cash-backed

Cash from ops $51M ÷ net income $57M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 11436%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $286M ÷ Owner Earnings $3M — this fiscal year

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $3M of Owner Earnings, $286M (11436%) went back to shareholders, $20M dividends, $266M buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Net of $9M stock comp, the real buyback was about $257M. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands. This year's proportion is 11436%; across the record (2017–2026) it is 183%, the capital-allocation section below.
Investing or harvesting? 1.02×

Maintaining

Capex $48M ÷ depreciation & amortization as filed $48M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

The promise and the pay packet

Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 0.5%

The count is genuinely shrinking

Stock compensation $9M (fiscal 2026), 0.5% of revenue · repurchases $266M · diluted shares -30.3% since 2023

What this means
Stock handed to employees is a real cost paid in the owner's own currency: it is charged against profit, but the shares it creates are permanent. Many companies repurchase stock at the same time, which looks like a return of capital and often is not — if the count barely moves, the cash merely cancelled the pay packet and bought the owner nothing. The three states worth telling apart are a count genuinely shrinking, a count standing still despite large repurchases, and a count rising because the issuance was never offset at all.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Near

Revenue ≥ $2B · $1.6B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.23×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Pass

Debt ≤ working capital · $82M vs $136M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Near

Earnings +33% over the record · +6%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $1.07/share (latest year $2.71), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $35.92/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 6 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 3% → 1% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 3% early to 1% lately, median 1% — competition or costs are biting in.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth −3%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 3% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · −6.0% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count −4.1%/yr

What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, May 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$721M

Cash & short-term investments$135M
Receivables$236M
Inventory$265M
Other current assets$85M

Current liabilities$586M

Accounts payable$144M
Other current liabilities$441M

Current ratio1.23×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.78×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.23×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$136Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−1.9%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 1.2×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$474Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$382M$307M of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $403M (annual-report basis)

Deferred revenue$182Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'27$6M

'28$0

'29$0

'30$0

'31$0

Bars scaled to the largest single year.

Due in the next 12 months$6Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$6Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$6Min 2027the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$6Mevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, May 31, 2026$135M

One year of owner earnings (FY2026)$3M

Together, against $6M due next year25.0×

Cash on hand as of May 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $137M against the $6M due in the twelve months after the May 31, 2026 schedule: 25 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s May 31, 2026 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

Lease obligations

the lease note, SEC EDGAR →

Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

Operating leasesFinance leases

'27$53M

'28$52M

'29$44M

'30$39M

'31$38M

later$338M

Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.

Due in the next 12 months$53Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year

Total lease payments$565Mevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take

On the balance sheet$322Mthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$82M

Lease obligations (present value)$322M

Total fixed claims on the business$403M

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $403M, of which the leases are 80%, more than the debt itself. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.

Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s May 31, 2026 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $1.2B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$655M · 56%
Dividends$218M · 19%
Buybacks$738M · 63%

Returned to owners$956M
183% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $218M as dividends and $738M as buybacks.
Source of funding−$434M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $434M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $6M to $81M, and cash and short-term investments drew down $309M.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $738M over the span, but a stock split in the window left the reported buyback-share counts on a basis the diluted-share count doesn't match, so a comparable average price can't be drawn.
Net change in share count−31.6%
The diluted count fell from 35M to 24M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$0.83/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 4% a year. It was never cut over the span.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	$1.6M	$1.5M	$24M
2022	$37k	−$353k	$184M
2022	$5.2M	$5.6M	$184M
2023	$3.3M	$3.8M	$87M
2024	$2.0M	$1.8M	$96M
2025	$3.3M	$2.4M	$72M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

CEO pay ratio74:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2025 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
Stock-based compensation$9M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2026, 0.5% of revenue, equal to 55.9% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →

How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
≈$237M · 15% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
“Currently, the Company's top five U.S. trade customers make up approximately 74% of the Company's U.S. trade business and 15% of the Company's total revenues.”verify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Publishing

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.

Company	Revenuelatest FY, USD	Gross marginmedian over the record	Op. marginmedian over the record	ROICmedian over the record	Owner earn. marginmedian over the record
WKLWolters Kluwer NV	$7.1B	71%	24.0%	27%	—
PSOPearson Plc	$4.9B	51%	11.0%	8%	8%
NYTNew York Times Company (The)	$2.8B	53%4y	10.7%	15%	10%
TDAYUSA TODAY Co. Inc.	$2.3B	40%	2.9%	-2%	2%
MHMcGraw Hill Inc.	$2.1B	80%	13.2%	7%	12%
WLYJohn Wiley & Sons Inc.	$1.7B	69%	11.4%	9%	11%
SCHLScholastic Corporation	$1.6B	54%	1.2%	1%	3%
WBTNWEBTOON Entertainment Inc.	$1.4B	24%	-6.0%	-8%	0%
Group median	—	53%	10.9%	8%	8%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Scholastic Corporation has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Scholastic Corporation earns about $49M on its 3.1% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 0.2% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($49M) Net of stock comp (−$9M TTM)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.71% 10-year Treasury (Aug 18, 2026) + 4.29 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26−28%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26−3%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.71%, as of Aug 18, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $3M on 21M shares outstanding, the balance-sheet count at 2026-02-28; net cash $54M. The if-converted diluted count is 24M, 16% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh SCHL against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Scholastic Corporation (SCHL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/SCHL, data as of 2026-08-17.

Manual order: ← SCCO its page in the Manual SCHW →

Industry order: ← PSO the Publishing chapter TDAY →