Although only two of the 10 companies listed on the Publishers Weekly Stock Index had declines in their share prices in February, that was enough to push the PWSI down by 3.6% in the month. The reason for the decline was that Amazon’s stock price fell by nearly $35, a drop of 5.9%. If Amazon were excluded, the PWSI would have risen 3.5%. Amazon wasn’t the biggest loser in the month on a percentage basis, however. HarperCollins parent company News Corp had a 17.1% decline in its stock price, due in part to a disappointing quarterly report. R.R. Donnelley released an encouraging fourth-quarter financial report and its stock price rose 8.7% in February, putting it behind only Barnes & Noble as the best-performing stock on the PWSI in the month.
Winners
| Company | Jan. 29 | Feb. 29 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barnes & Noble | 8.77 | 9.70 | 10.6% |
| R.R. Donnelley | 13.97 | 15.18 | 8.7% |
| Educational Dev. Corp. | 10.53 | 11.34 | 7.7% |
| Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 17.84 | 18.91 | 6.0% |
| Pearson | 11.23 | 11.83 | 5.3% |
| John Wiley | 41.80 | 44.00 | 5.3% |
| Scholastic | 34.33 | 35.03 | 2.0% |
| CBS | 47.50 | 48.38 | 1.8% |
Losers
| Amazon | 587.00 | 522.52 | -5.9% |
| News Corp | 13.35 | 11.41 | -17.1% |
| Publishers Weekly | |||
| Stock Index | 786.32 | 758.83 | -3.6% |
| Dow Jones Aver. | 16,466.30 | 16,516.50 | 0.3% |
Source: Publishers Weekly
