Industry Stocks: March Performances
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 4/5/2004
March was a down month for both the Publishers Weekly Stock Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell 3.3% and 2.1%, respectively. The share prices of 14 stocks on the PWSI declined in the month, while seven rose. The biggest loser in the month was LeapFrog, whose stock price fell 24.8% following a warning that 2004 earnings would be lower than anticipated. Earnings warnings also played a major role in dropping the stock prices at Marvel and Scholastic. Marvel, however, did complete a 3-for-2 stock split at the end of March. MediaBay, which is scrambling to restructure its debt, saw its stock price fall to 55 cents at the end of March. The biggest winner in the month was Books-A-Million, which not only reported a solid increase in earnings for 2003 but also announced a stock buy-back plan of up to 1.6 million shares.
| COMPANY | FEB. 27 | MAR. 31 | % CHANGE |
| Winners | |||
| Books-A-Million | 5.61 | 6.40 | 14.1% |
| John Wiley | 26.29 | 29.93 | 13.8 |
| Thomas Nelson | 25.08 | 27.22 | 8.5 |
| Banta Corp. | 44.36 | 46.29 | 4.3 |
| Reader's Digest | 13.50 | 14.08 | 4.3 |
| Losers | |||
| LeapFrog | 25.75 | 19.35 | -24.8% |
| Marvel | 34.25 | 19.19 | -15.9 |
| Scholastic | 32.02 | 27.25 | -14.9 |
| Advanced Marketing Services | 10.82 | 9.90 | -8.5 |
| Barnes & Noble | 34.90 | 32.60 | -6.6 |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| Stock Index1 | 544.97 | 526.83 | -3.3% |
| Dow Jones Average | 10,583.92 | 10,357.70 | -2.1% |
Source: Reed Business Information |
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