With the stock prices of nine of the 11 companies on the Publishers Weekly Stock Index rising in February, the PWSI managed to eke out a 0.9% increase. The two companies whose share prices fell were both educational publishers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s stock price had the largest decline in February. Last week, the company reported its full-year and fourth-quarter results, which were mixed. The company cut its loss for the year, but its fourth-quarter loss was higher than in the final period of 2017. Investors also seem uncertain about what lies ahead for Pearson. In late February, the company announced that sales and adjusted operating profit for 2018 were lower than for 2017, but it has simplified its operating structure and increased the share of sales it generates from digital products.

Total Sales of Print Books

(in thousands)

Company Jan. 31 Feb. 28 Change
B&N Education 5.72 6.89 20.4%
Quad 13.51 14.59 8.0%
LSC Communications 7.93 8.46 6.7%
Barnes & Noble 6.03 6.30 4.5%
News Corp 12.86 13.31 3.5%
Scholastic 41.69 42.31 1.5%
CBS 49.46 50.21 1.5%
Educational Dev. Corp. 7.97 8.05 1.0%
John Wiley 51.78 51.89 0.2%
Pearson 11.88 11.35 -4.4%
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 10.47 7.91 -24.4%
Publishers Weekly Stock Index 219.30 221.27 0.9%
Dow Jones Aver. 25,014.86 25,916.00 3.6%

Source: Publishers Weekly