The Publishers Weekly Stock Index jumped 14.2% in July with the gain due entirely to the phenomenal performance of Amazon’s shares which added more than $100 in the month. Investors were cheered by the online giant’s results for the second quarter in which Amazon posted an unexpected profit led by a strong showing of its cloud services division. Excluding Amazon, the PWSI slipped 0.5%. Books-A-Million’s share price finished July with a 12.9% increase after the company’s board agreed to a $3.25 per share offer from the Anderson family to acquire all the BAM stock they do not own. R.R. Donnelley’s share price had a solid gain in July and on Aug. 4 the company announced that it planned to separate the conglomerate into three different companies. Also in early August, Barnes & Noble Education began trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its spinoff from Barnes & Noble. B&NE will join the PWSI next month.
| Winners | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Jun. 30 | Jul. 31 | % Change |
| Amazon | 434.09 | 536.15 | 23.5% |
| Books-A-Million | 2.86 | 3.23 | 12.9 |
| R.R. Donnelley | 17.43 | 17.55 | 6.9 |
| Chegg | 7.84 | 8.31 | 6.0 |
| Houghton Mifflin | 25.20 | 26.13 | 3.7 |
| Scholastic | 43.09 | 44.13 | 2.4 |
| Losers | |||
| CBS | 55.50 | 53.47 | -3.6 |
| John Wiley | 54.37 | 53.01 | -2.5 |
| Pearson | 18.96 | 18.66 | -1.6 |
| Publishers Weekly Stock Index | 705.48 | 806.10 | 14.2 |
| Dow Jones Aver. | 17,617.77 | 17,689.86 | 0.4 |
Source: Publishers Weekly
