How AI is pushing this non-technology stock higher

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is something most investors associate with technology companies, like NVIDIA, Palantir, or Broadcom.

But as AI develops, its impacts are felt far beyond technology, as it fans out to other sectors and industries – even publishing.

On Tuesday, publishing company John Wiley & Sons (NYSE:WLY) reported strong fiscal fourth quarter earnings that surpassed expectations, with an assist from its AI-based initiatives.

The venerable book publisher, which has been around since 1807, saw its stock price soar roughly 11% on Tuesday to around $41 per share. On a bleak day for the markets when all of the indexes were down, Wiley was one of the day’s top gainers.

Wiley reported revenue of $443 million in the quarter, which was actually down 5% year-over-year. But that was mainly due to divestitures. On an adjusted basis, revenue was roughly flat year-over-year. However, the $443 million in revenue topped Wall Street estimates of $435 million.

Net income spiked about 170% to $68.1 million, or $1.25 per share. Earnings were 15% of revenue, up from 5% of revenue in the same period a year ago. On an adjusted basis, not including divestitures and other one-time items, earnings were $1.37 per share, up from $1.21 a year ago. That handily beat estimates of $1.31 per share.

“We delivered another strong year of execution as we met or exceeded our financial commitments, drove profitable growth in our core, expanded margins and free cash flow, and extended further into the corporate market through AI licensing and partnership, science analytics, and knowledge services,” Matthew Kissner, president and CEO, said.

Significant surge in AI licensing revenue

One of the big revenue drivers for Wiley in the quarter was AI licensing, wherein the company licenses its massive amount of content within all of its books and publications for use in AI applications.

To put that into perspective, Wiley’s content includes more than 21,000 books, 75,000 articles, and some 2,000 journals. Its books include the For Dummies series, along with text books, reference books, educational guides, and books about business, leadership, management, family, and just about any type of nonfiction topic you can think of.

In the fiscal fourth quarter ended April 30, Wiley executed an AI content licensing project with a large tech company, its third big tech client, including Amazon Web Services and Perplexity. Those partnerships resulted in $40 million in total AI licensing revenue in fiscal 2025, compared to $23 million in fiscal 2024.

“It’s a kind of a really nascent emerging market where corporations are fine tuning their proprietary AI models with our data, and they want the most current, most accurate data,” Kissner said on the earnings call. “So, we’re really running a series of pilots but getting a lot of interest. As to how rapidly that’s going to develop, again, it’s very, very early days. But we are I do think kind of that’s the future of where the puck is going with AI, at least relative to our business.”

Strong growth outlook

With AI licensing as a new growth avenue for Wiley, it raised its guidance for fiscal 2026. The company is calling for low-to-mid single digit growth in revenue and adjusted earnings of $3.90 to $4.35 per share, which would be 7% to 19% growth.

It also expects to boost its adjusted EBITDA margin to 25.5% to 26.5%, up from 24% last year. Further, free cash flow is anticipated to hit $200 million, up substantially from $125 million last year.

Wiley stock is down 6% YTD and up 1% over the past one year. And it hasn’t been a great long-term performer, with a five-year average annualized return of about 1% and a 10-year average annualized return of -3%.

But with this new AI growth engine, and improving financials, it looks like a stock to watch. It doesn’t have a lot of analyst coverage, but one of the analysts that cover it gave it a $60 price target, which would be about 48% higher than the current price.

So while it may not be the typical AI stock, it is one to put on your radar.