With the stock prices up at nine companies in the month, the Publishers Weekly Stock Index rose 6.5% in November. The biggest winner in the month was Books-A-Million whose stock price rose steadily throughout November and finished up 30.3% for the month. The company ended November by reporting a solid third quarter financial performance. Amazon had the biggest dollar increase in the month, with its share price rising by more than $30. The November gain stemmed a steady decline in the e-tailer’s share price for much of 2014 and Amazon’s stock price is still down for the year. Barnes & Noble posted another increase in its share price in the month; in the first week in December, B&N announced that it was cutting ties with Microsoft (see p. 8). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s share price had the largest decline in November, falling 3.9%.
| Winners | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Oct. 31 | Nov. 28 | % Change |
| Books-A-Million | 1.42 | 1.85 | 30.3 |
| Amazon | 305.46 | 338.64 | 10.9 |
| Barnes & Noble | 21.82 | 23.36 | 7.1 |
| Pearson | 18.75 | 19.31 | 3.0 |
| John Wiley | 58.39 | 59.72 | 2.3 |
| Scholastic | 34.81 | 35.50 | 2.0 |
| Losers | |||
| Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 20.01 | 19.22 | -3.9 |
| R.R. Donnelley | 17.45 | 16.84 | -3.5 |
| Educational Dev. Corp. | 4.37 | 4.22 | -3.4 |
| Publishers Weekly Stock Index | 572.02 | 609.14 | 6.5 |
| Dow Jones | 17,390.52 | 17,828.24 | 2.5 |
Source: publishers weekly
