Good morning, and welcome to John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s third quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. At this time, I would like to introduce John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s Vice President of Investor Relations, Brian Campbell. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. With me today are Matthew Kissner, President and CEO; Craig Albright, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Jay Flynn, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Research and Learning. Our comments and responses reflect management views as of today and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those statements. The company does not undertake any obligation to update them to reflect subsequent events. Also, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. provides non-GAAP measures as a supplement to evaluate underlying operating profitability and performance trends. These measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by U.S. GAAP and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies, nor should they be viewed as alternatives to measures under GAAP. We will refer to non-GAAP metrics on the call, and variances are on a year-over-year basis. We will exclude divested assets and the impact of currency. Additional information is included in our filings with the SEC. A copy of this presentation and transcript will be available at investors.wiley.com. I will now turn the call over to Matthew Kissner.

Thank you, Brian. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our fiscal Q3 earnings update. Before I get to our performance and progress, I want to acknowledge our price amid AI fears across the market. The fact is we do not share those same fears. Quite the opposite. We could not be more confident in our position in the AI economy given our proprietary content advantage, wide moat in peer review research, and unparalleled partnership ecosystem. The ongoing opportunity is twofold. AI is expected to greatly accelerate scientific discovery and research publishing output, and our enriched data and AI solutions are foundational for corporate R&D, AI models, and applications. I will discuss this in more detail later in our call. The third quarter was fully in line with our stated expectations. Revenue performance was impacted by an unfavorable comparable in research, which we called out in the second quarter, and soft market conditions in learning. We continue to accelerate in all major areas of focus. Research publishing continues to outpace the market with global output up 11%, revenue up 4% excluding AI revenue, and steady growth in our multiyear renewals. In AI and data services, we announced new leadership, launched our clinical outcome assessments partnership with IQVIA, and after quarter close, executed a strategic multiyear partnership with Open Evidence to deliver trusted research at the point of medical care. We also secured a new AI model training customer, our first outside the U.S., and realized $7,000,000 of AI revenue. We are rapidly advancing our technology transformation initiatives with the announcement of a multiyear managed services partnership with Virtusa. We also continue to deliver corporate expense savings, on an adjusted EBITDA basis, down 21% in the quarter, or $9,000,000 versus prior year. We continue to deliver material margin expansion and cash flow growth…

Thank you, Matt, and hello, everyone. Three summary points that define where we stand today. Research publishing is growing at the high end of the market’s long-term rate, AI revenue is tracking ahead of expectations, and importantly, we are beginning to see leading indicators of recurring revenue growth in new partnerships, pilots, and pipeline, which is where the real value gets built. And our balance sheet is very strong, giving us the capacity to invest in high-return growth opportunities. Learning continues to face macro and channel headwinds that are masking the underlying earnings power of our business, but we are managing through it with discipline and agility while keeping our focus squarely on the businesses and investments driving long-term value creation. Turning to our fiscal third quarter results, we projected a light quarter due to unfavorable comps, and overall revenue came in as expected, up 1% on a reported basis and flat at constant currency. Growth in Research Publishing and Academic was offset by moderate declines in Research Solutions and Professional. Reflecting our commitment to operating discipline, we delivered strong margin expansion and profit growth even with revenue softness. Adjusted operating income, adjusted EPS, and adjusted EBITDA were all up double digits, or 22%, 19%, and 12%, respectively. Our adjusted operating margin improved by 280 basis points, and adjusted EBITDA margin by 250 basis points. Adjusted EPS growth was driven by our operating performance and the lower share count as we remain in the market acquiring shares. This was partially offset by a higher adjusted effective tax rate. Let me turn to our segment performance, starting with Research. Research was up 1%, with a 40-basis-point improvement in EBITDA margin. Research Publishing performance was impacted by $9,000,000 of AI revenue in the prior-year period. Absent AI revenues, Research Publishing was up…

As I wrap up, I want to say a few words about fiscal 2027. We will provide formal guidance in June, of course, but I want to give you a sense of what we are seeing. Expect Research growth and strong momentum to continue, driven by robust publishing output, steady growth in renewals, market share gains, and society wins. We see Learning improving to a steady state as we focus on franchise authors, digital growth, and inclusive access, and we will continue to tackle our cost base. AI momentum is expected to further accelerate from our executed multiyear partnerships and increased corporate uptake, and we expect another big year in AI revenue. We will start to see the benefits of streamlined business development and product innovation under Armahan. Finally, we anticipate copyright court decisions to start to materialize. We have talked about the Anthropic copyright settlement, the largest in U.S. history, and that is still in the claims process. We expect to know our share of that by the summer. Important to note, there are approximately 70 copyright lawsuits currently underway in the U.S. involving AI. Our operational excellence initiatives are fast-tracking with full launch of our Research Exchange platform, the kickoff of our new managed services partnership, and the momentum of our AI Center of Excellence. We expect to drive meaningful margin expansion again from tech transformation, corporate expense reduction, and AI productivity gains. And we remain focused on portfolio optimization and disciplined capital allocation to drive higher ROIC and recurring revenue growth, scale up in Research Publishing, and reward our long-term shareholders. Let me quickly review some key takeaways before opening the floor to questions. We are accelerating our progress on all major areas of focus, driving meaningful growth and momentum in Research and AI, expanding margins and cash flow, deploying capital strategically, and improving ROIC. Q3 was in line with our expectations, and we are on track to achieve our full-year outlook at the high end for margin and EPS. And finally, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. remains extremely well positioned for the AI economy. Our core publishing business is robust and uniquely secure. Our proprietary content, domain-specific intelligence, and partnership ecosystem are in continuously high demand. AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. This is where John Wiley & Sons, Inc. comes in. Thank you to our 5,000 colleagues around the world for all you do to transform knowledge into the breakthroughs that matter, and to our investors for joining us and seeing the long-term value-creation potential of our business. We will now open for questions.

At this time, I would like to remind everyone: in order to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment. Your first question comes from the line of Daniel Moore with CJS Securities. Your line is open.

Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Greg. A lot of detail there. Greatly appreciate it. Let me start, I guess we will start with AI. You know, you just laid it out very well. But two years ago, signed your first, you know, kind of initial nonrecurring deals. You know, since then, AI-related revenue doubled from $23,000,000 to $40,000,000 on our way to $45,000,000 to $50,000,000. What can you tell us about the momentum and direction of AI-related revenue and contributions that, you know, maybe you could not two years ago, as we think about fiscal 2026 as a platform for growth?

Yes. Let me start, Dan. Thanks, by the way. And that is exactly what you are seeing. It is kind of you are seeing the market evolve, and I will turn it to Craig in a minute to get a little more specific, but—and then the emergence of the business models around recurring revenue. And so you see what we have done with IQVIA and Open Evidence. Almost think of them as blueprints for what a much bigger market opportunity might look like. And you know, I know you want specifics. You know, we can talk a little bit about these, but you know, there is a lot more to come as these expand. So let me turn it over to Craig to add some more light on that.

Thanks, Matt. Yes. We like to think of AI opportunity in the market really moving in different kind of growth curves. As you know, we kind of, a few years ago, as you mentioned, kind of really started learning and getting into the market and partnering. And we moved into the training model. The first growth curve, if you will, was largely evidenced by nonrecurring revenue, but important for us to gain partnerships, learn, start to develop where we are headed with our next curve. And then that next curve being the one where we start to get into the recurring revenue models, subscription models, ways where we can really create true sustainable value over time. And we have really started to see that materialize. In the first growth curve, we have seen a little bit more legs to it than we initially imagined, and we are now starting to see the ramp-up of the second growth curve. So this year, we are slightly under 10% of our $45,000,000 to $50,000,000 in terms of recurring revenue, and we expect that to triple next year. And we are going to continue to work to drive that even higher. So we are excited about the progress we are making. It is still early days. And I would say we are moving as fast as our customers are moving, but really trying to seize every opportunity as we go forward.

Yes. I want to add two important points to help with the understanding. One is that comment about we can move as fast as our customers are moving because, you know, I think everyone is learning how to bring AI into their core business processes. So a lot of the growth here is going to be based on the customers’ learning on how to use AI to improve research productivity, shorten cycles, et cetera. We are there with them side by side. Second is, as I mentioned, we have a new leader for our AI and data services focus in Armahan, and he is now building out a growth plan. And, you know, I would expect as he completes that plan, we can provide more transparency into how we see this evolving.

Really helpful. Appreciate it. I was going to ask you about the moat, but I think we covered that in the first 10 or 15 minutes really well. On the margin side, the—mhmm. Obviously, you reduced corporate expense, I think, million this quarter, down 20% plus. On track for 26% plus EBITDA margins. Two different questions, but one, maybe elaborate on the partnership with Virtusa, the implications around potential cost and savings as we move forward, and what does that imply about the direction of EBITDA margins in kind of fiscal 2027 and beyond? Thanks, Dan.

We are very excited about the partnership with Virtusa. You know, we have a preexisting relationship, and we are really expanding that on a significant scale. This relationship for us is a—you know, roughly, right, it is $150,000,000 over five years in terms of their contract size. We expect it to generate both productivity as well as agility. So we see it contributing towards, you know, our margin expansion objectives. We also see it compelling—propelling us into AI-type tools and AI-first technology infrastructure that is going to really help us continue to find innovation and productivity through the years. I would say from a margins perspective, I will not get into the details about, you know, specifics on what it yields. But I will say that tech transformation broadly has been a significant driver of our expansion this year, and we expect that to continue going forward, into the coming years, as we layer on other types of initiatives as well that are going to really help to continue to drive multiyear margin expansion.

Perfect. And just Research Publishing up 4% adjusted. Article submissions, you know, continue to be really strong, up 26%. You know, I guess, outside of China, you mentioned India, any other kind of fast-growing regions or pockets of strength? And, you know, given double-digit growth in submissions this quarter, double-digit growth in output, would we expect that 4% growth to trend even higher? Or is that a good place to be from your perspective here for the near term?

Jay, why do you not begin, and I may wrap up.

Yes, sure. Hi, Dan. Thanks again for the questions. Yes. We are seeing growth across, you know, a broad set of regions. The strongest momentum continues to come from the major global research markets. We saw good growth in China, as you mentioned, and India, as you mentioned, but in North America too—submissions, article volume up there. European markets as well really rebounded strongly for us. Happy to see Japan growing again after a tough couple of years in that market. So at the same time, you know, we like what is happening in the Middle East, and we like what is happening from a research and investment perspective there. Governments and universities are investing more heavily in research output and in international collaborations. That, taken together with the strong performance in the core markets, gives us confidence about the trajectory of that business. It is really important to state, as we did a year ago, that growth is not concentrated in any single geography. It reflects the continued expansion, as Matt noted in the prepared remarks, of the global research ecosystem, and that is showing up across submission and publication volumes that are growing at a healthy pace. So, as we said, you know, top end of market range for this year, and with the investments we continue to make in our top brands, with the tailwind that AI is going to provide in the core for submissions and for researcher productivity, we feel confident as before in the trajectory of the business.

Yes. That is a great summary. I think, today, what we are seeing is the resilience and durability of research on a global scale, the benefit of the global diversification that we have, as Jay pointed out, and also, our business is performing quite well, and I would expect it to continue performing at the top of the market.

Looks great. Maybe one or two more and I will pass it along. But on the Learning side, yes, I think you talked about getting back to stability. If I sort of bifurcate the Academic versus Professional, you know, pieces of the business. Do we need the, you know, the library on the Professional side to feed either AI, or is it, you know, synergistic? It is just that piece of the business stands out as a little bit, you know, kind of noncore when we think about the real tilt to focus on growth and Research and wondering your thoughts on that.

You know, we have talked about this in the past, and it is, you know, these are great franchises but not growth franchises. You know. And so they are producing strong earnings and cash flow. And, you know, we are always mindful of capital allocation, as I talk about in my remarks. So there are not any sacred cows here. So, you know, we will be looking at this as we go forward, as we do routinely, Dan.

Perfect. Last one. I know it is rhetorical. You know, obviously, really strong quarter, outlook very healthy. You know, you are trending toward $5 of cash—of cash earnings per share. The stock is a little over five times EBITDA. Leverage is going to be close to return pretty soon. You know, strong double-digit free cash flow yield. Other than buying back stock and, you know, making the case that you are today, very, you know, articulately, anything else we can do to keep trying to unlock shareholder value? And I know that is, you know, not a fair question, but just throwing it out there. And I appreciate all the color today.

No. It is a good question. Tough question. Craig, do you want to start? And then—

Yes. I think, Dan, you know, we wake up every day thinking about this: how we create value for John Wiley & Sons, Inc., for our colleagues, for our shareholders, and for all our stakeholders. You know, we think importantly about organic growth investments. You know, with Armahan coming on board, with our focus on AI and data analytics, we see a lot of potential opportunity to really create new value for customers and for—and for John Wiley & Sons, Inc. overall. You know, we continue to think where we have existing core strengths. You know, the Research business is one that continues to show strength and resolve, growing at the top end of the market. So when we think about investments we have made, whether it is Advanced brands or geo diversity, we continue to think very broadly about organic growth opportunities where we have sustainable competitive advantage in our business. You know, beyond that, you know, portfolio and capital allocation is a way of life. You know, it is—it has been part of what John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been focused on for several years. And as we mentioned during our earnings call, we had—in my comments, we had divested a small business earlier this year. It shows evidence that we continue to look very strategically and thoughtfully about our business and where to kind of draw the resource and capital to the most effective places for the business. Beyond that, I think we are continuing to be very active on thinking about how we return capital to shareholders. We have a very healthy payout ratio. We have doubled our share buybacks, given the opportunity we have had with a strong cash flow, and we continue to do that while investing in the business. So we are not making any trade-offs here. I think the opportunities continue to be very robust in front of us, and we are excited to help bring that forward as we tell more of our story.

Sounds good. Again, appreciate all the color.

Thank you, Tim.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad.

At this time—There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Kissner for closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, everyone. I want to thank you for your continued confidence in us. You know, you see we are building a solid foundation for the future while delivering strong current results, which was our commitment we made, you know, two and a half years ago. And we are really looking forward to getting together in June in that regard and talking about how we close out the year.

See you then. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.