Company Mar. 31 Apr. 30 % Change
Led by spectacular gains from three companies whose stock prices have been beaten down for quite a while, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index rose 6.4% in April. The big winner was Borders, as investors, apparently convinced that the bookstore chain is in no danger of filing for bankruptcy any time soon, bid up its stock price by over 333%. The stock price of CBS also turned around after months of declines, jumping 83.3% in the month, while the stock price of the printing giant R.R. Donnelley benefitted from the growing belief that business is bottoming out. Fifteen out of the 16 stocks on the PWSI had an increase in April, with the only decline posted by Franklin Electronic Publishers, as that company tries to remain relevant in the digital world. The highest-flying stock on the PWSI continues to be Amazon, which had a 9.6% increase in its stock price during the month helped by another good quarterly report. The e-tailer’s stock price closed April at $80.52 per share.
Source: Reed Business Information
Winners
Borders Group 0.63 2.73 333.3%
CBS 3.84 7.04 83.3
R.R. Donnelley 7.33 11.65 58.9
Educational Dev. Corp 3.67 5.70 55.3
Hastings Ent. 2.52 3.58 42.1
McGraw-Hill Cos. 22.87 30.15 31.8
Scholastic 15.07 19.73 30.9
Books-A-Million 4.60 5.74 24.8
Barnes & Noble 21.38 26.12 22.2
Losers
Franklin Elec. Pub. 0.85 0.80 -5.9
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index 226.21 283.30 6.4
Dow Jones Aver. 7,608.92 8,168.12 7.4