The Publishers Weekly Stock Index dipped 1.5% in January, substantially underperforming compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rose 5.8%. This year’s PWSI has been reconfigured, adding IDW Media and Barnes & Noble Education and dropping Amazon from the list, since the giant e-tailer has moved well beyond its bookselling roots. We will still keep an eye on how Amazon stock is doing, however—in January it rose 24%, closing at $1,450.89 per share. The best performer on the PWSI was Educational Development Corp. whose per share price rose 19.2%. In early January, EDC reported that sales for the quarter ended Nov. 30, 2017, were up 26.7% over last year’s third period, while earnings jumped 67%. Investors hammered Barnes & Noble’s stock price after the retailer reported disappointing holiday sales in early January.
| Company | Dec. 29 2017 | Jan. 31 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Educational Dev. Corp. | 18.24 | 21.75 | 19.2% |
| News Corp | 16.60 | 17.45 | 5.1% |
| IDW Media | 46.00 | 48.00 | 4.3% |
| Pearson | 9.82 | 9.77 | -0.5% |
| CBS | 59.00 | 57.61 | -2.3% |
| John Wiley | 65.75 | 63.40 | -3.6% |
| Scholastic | 40.11 | 38.42 | -4.2% |
| Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9.30 | 8.40 | -9.6% |
| LSC | 15.15 | 13.68 | -9.7% |
| B&N Education | 8.24 | 6.65 | -19.3% |
| Barnes & Noble | 6.70 | 4.70 | -30.0% |
| Publishers Weekly Stock Index | 294.37 | 289.83 | -1.5% |
| Dow Jones Aver. | 24,719.22 | 26,149.39 | 5.8% |
