Wolters Kluwer N.V. (WKL) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: €15.37B
• Dividend Yield: 2.75%
• Average Volume (3M): 786.37K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 12.0
• Beta (1Y): 0.86
• Revenue Growth: 5.69%
• EPS Growth: 11.26%
• Country: NL
• Employees: 21,200
• Sector: Industrials
• Sector Strength: 72
• Industry: Specialty Business Services
• EPS (TTM): 3.34
• Shares Outstanding: 232,516,160
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 646,064
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 786,367
• PEG Ratio: 0.63
• Price to Book (P/B): 25.57
• Price to Sales (P/S): 3.33
• P/FCF Ratio: 14.94
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: N/A
• 1Y Price Target: €105.17
• Price Target Upside: 54.53% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 7
• EPS Forecast (FY): 5.62
• Revenue Forecast (FY): €6.30B

• Rating: 68 Neutral
• Price Target: €69.00 ▲(1.38% Upside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 02/26/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 02/26/26

The score is driven primarily by strong underlying profitability and cash generation, tempered by higher balance-sheet leverage risk. Valuation is supportive (low P/E and solid yield), but the weak technical trend (below key moving averages with negative MACD) meaningfully reduces the overall score.

Positive Factors

Subscription-based recurring revenue

A subscription-first business model provides predictable, high-quality recurring revenue and higher customer retention. This supports durable cash flow visibility, enables multi-year customer relationships, and underpins reinvestment in product development and service continuity over the next 2–6 months and beyond.

Leading position across regulated professional markets

Diversified leadership in highly regulated, knowledge-driven verticals creates strong competitive moats: high switching costs, regulatory barriers, and deep domain content. This market footprint supports steady demand, cross-sell opportunities, and resilience to cyclicality over the medium term.

High, durable profitability and cash generation

Consistently strong margins and rising operating cash flow (operating cash flow ~€1.2B to ~€1.7B historically) indicate structural operating efficiency and pricing power. Robust free cash flow historically (€1.0B–€1.4B) supports investment, dividends and debt servicing capacity over the medium term.

Negative Factors

Elevated leverage and sharply reduced equity

Rising debt alongside a collapsing equity base materially increases financial risk and reduces balance-sheet flexibility. Higher leverage raises interest and refinancing risk, constrains strategic optionality for M&A or buybacks, and can amplify earnings volatility if growth slows.

Revenue growth deceleration in latest year

A meaningful slowdown to ~0.8% growth suggests emerging headwinds such as market saturation, pricing pressure, or slower migration to higher-value products. Sustained weaker top-line growth would limit operating leverage and constrain the company’s ability to expand margins and reinvest at prior rates.

Free cash flow volatility and recent steep decline

Material FCF volatility and an ~18.8% drop in 2025 reduce predictability of funds for debt reduction, dividends, and strategic investments. If persistent, this undermines cash-backed resilience implied by margins and could force trade-offs between growth investment and balance-sheet repair.

Wolters Kluwer N.V. Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Wolters Kluwer N.V. provides professional information, software solutions, and services in the Netherlands, rest of Europe, the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Health; Tax & Accounting; Governance, Risk & Compliance; and Legal & Regulatory. The Health segment offers clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that drive effective decision-making and improved outcomes across healthcare. It provides solutions for hospitals, clinics, other healthcare providers, individual clinicians and students, nursing and medical schools and libraries, retail pharmacies, payers, and life sciences organizations. The Tax & Accounting segment offers solutions that help tax, accounting, and audit professionals to drive productivity, navigate change, and deliver better outcomes. It provides solutions for accounting firms, corporate finance, tax and auditing departments, government agencies, libraries, and universities. The Governance, Risk & Compliance segment offers technology-enabled services and solutions for legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and regulatory reporting. It serves legal, compliance, and risk professionals in corporations, small businesses, law firms, insurers, banks, non-bank lenders, credit unions, leasing companies, and securities firms. The Legal & Regulatory segment provides evidence-based information, actionable insights, and integrated workflow solutions that help customers to make the right decisions and streamline compliance. It enables legal and compliance professionals, and operational risk managers, as well as environmental, health, and safety managers to improve productivity and performance, mitigate risk, and solve complex problems with confidence in law firms, corporations, universities, and government agencies. Wolters Kluwer N.V. was founded in 1836 and is based in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

How the Company Makes Money

Wolters Kluwer generates revenue primarily through subscription-based models and the sale of software products. Its key revenue streams include recurring revenue from subscriptions to its online platforms and software products, as well as one-time fees for certain software licenses and professional services. The company also earns revenue from content sales and licensing agreements. Significant partnerships with organizations in healthcare, legal, and financial sectors bolster its offerings and expand its market reach. Furthermore, investments in digital transformation and innovation play a crucial role in enhancing its service delivery and customer engagement, thereby contributing to its overall earnings.

Wolters Kluwer N.V. Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Strong operating profile with high, durable margins and solid cash generation, but the overall financial picture is capped by rising debt and a sharply shrinking equity base, increasing leverage risk and reducing flexibility.

Income Statement

Revenue has expanded steadily from 2020–2025 (about €4.6B to €6.1B), with consistently strong profitability: gross margin around ~68–73%, EBIT margin ~21–25%, and net margin ~15–19% in the years provided. Earnings also rose meaningfully over time (net income ~€0.7B to ~€1.3B). Key watch-outs are a sharp slowdown in the latest reported revenue growth rate (2025 shows ~0.8% vs mid-single-digit in 2024) and some margin variability year-to-year, though overall profitability remains high.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet shows elevated leverage and weakening equity: total debt increased to ~€5.1B (2025) while shareholders’ equity fell sharply to ~€0.8B (from ~€1.5B in 2024 and ~€2.3B in 2022). This drives higher financial risk and reduces balance-sheet flexibility despite a fairly stable asset base (~€9.1B–€9.6B). Returns on equity are very high in prior years, but that strength is amplified by the shrinking equity base, which can signal higher leverage risk rather than purely stronger operating performance.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is consistently solid, with operating cash flow rising from ~€1.2B (2020) to ~€1.7B (2025) and free cash flow typically strong (about €1.0B–€1.4B). In the years provided, free cash flow covered a large portion of earnings (roughly ~79–81%), supporting quality of profits. The main concern is volatility in free cash flow growth—most notably a steep decline in 2025 (about -18.8%) after a gain in 2024—suggesting potential timing effects or higher investment/outflows that should be monitored.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	6.13B	5.92B	5.58B	5.45B	4.77B
Gross Profit	4.50B	4.29B	4.01B	3.73B	3.27B
EBITDA	2.01B	1.93B	1.77B	1.78B	1.41B
Net Income	1.31B	1.08B	1.01B	1.03B	728.00M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	9.58B	9.50B	9.09B	9.65B	9.18B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	932.00M	954.00M	1.14B	1.35B	1.00B
Total Debt	5.13B	4.07B	3.75B	3.62B	3.13B
Total Liabilities	8.79B	7.95B	7.34B	7.34B	6.76B
Stockholders Equity	798.00M	1.54B	1.75B	2.31B	2.42B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	1.37B	1.34B	1.22B	1.29B	1.05B
Operating Cash Flow	1.67B	1.65B	1.54B	1.58B	1.29B
Investing Cash Flow	-775.00M	-652.00M	-374.00M	-299.00M	-287.00M
Financing Cash Flow	-877.00M	-1.09B	-1.48B	-991.00M	-451.00M

Wolters Kluwer N.V. Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Neutral
• Last Price: 68.06
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Negative

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For NL:WKL, the sentiment is Neutral. The current price of 68.06 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 64.71, below the 50-day MA of 77.94, and below the 200-day MA of 108.63, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of -3.59 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 47.45 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 90.38 is Negative, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Neutral sentiment for NL:WKL.

Wolters Kluwer N.V. Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
WKL	68 Neutral	€15.37B	12.02	92.62%	2.75%	5.69%	11.26%
KPN	66 Neutral	€18.23B	21.47	34.21%	4.43%	3.75%	0.28%
INPST	66 Neutral	€7.57B	33.16	―	―	30.31%	0.33%
IMCD	64 Neutral	€4.47B	20.55	14.32%	2.83%	6.09%	-7.18%
LIGHT	64 Neutral	€2.23B	8.98	11.48%	7.57%	-4.73%	17.93%
Sector *	63 Neutral	$10.79B	15.43	7.44%	2.01%	2.89%	-14.66%
RAND	58 Neutral	€4.61B	15.79	1.49%	9.24%	-3.62%	-87.74%