COMPANY | July 31 | Aug. 29 | % CHANGE |
Despite a poor second quarter and not-so-great predictions for the remainder of the year, the stock prices of the three major bookstore chains all rose in August, led by Borders, which had a 42.8% jump as investors appeared encouraged by the retailer’s ability to cut its losses. The other big winner in the month was Courier Corp., whose share price rose 26%, helped by the announcement of an expansion of its stock buyback program. Hastings had the biggest loss in August, despite posting decent comp sales and reaffirming its earnings forecast for the year; the retailer did say it was concerned about the ongoing economic uncertainty. In all, stock prices rose at 11 companies on the Publishers Weekly Stock Index and declined at five. Source: Reed Business Information | |||
Winners | |||
Borders Group | 4.90 | 7.00 | 42.8% |
Courier Corp. | 16.98 | 21.40 | 26.0 |
Books-A-Million | 6.10 | 6.75 | 10.6 |
McGraw-Hill | 39.80 | 42.84 | 7.6 |
Amazon | 76.34 | 80.81 | 5.8 |
John Wiley | 45.34 | 47.58 | 4.9 |
Losers | |||
Hastings Ent. | 8.51 | 7.95 | -6.6 |
Pearson | 12.82 | 12.40 | -3.3 |
Marvel Ent. | 34.70 | 33.87 | -2.4 |
CBS | 16.36 | 16.18 | -1.1 |
Publishers Weekly | |||
Stock Index | 390.47 | 408.34 | 4.6 |
Dow Jones Aver. | 11,326.32 | 11,543.55 | 1.9 |
Volume 255 Issue 36 09/08/2008