Industry Stocks: July Performances

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 8/9/2004

It was a bloodbath on the Publishers Weekly Stock Index in July, with the share prices of 17 companies falling, while prices rose at only four. The imbalance drove the PWSI down 7.8% in the month compared to only a 0.5% dip in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Although second-quarter earnings were good at a number of companies, investors and analysts focused on future performances which, for some companies, tended not to look as strong as the last few quarters. That was certainly the case at Marvel. Although sales skyrocketed and earnings beat previous estimates, a slowing of toy sales was enough to drive down the company's stock price 33.1% in July. At Amazon, a slowing growth rate in second-quarter sales in its media group led to a sell-off in the stock, resulting in a 28.5% drop in its share price. Books-A-Million was the only company to have a meaningful increase in its stock price, with the 22.7% gain aided by an upgrade from the research firm Sun Trust.