Surprisingly strong first-quarter sales and earnings at Amazon helped to drive up the e-tailer's stock price 54.1% in April, easily making it the best performing stock on the PWSI for the month. Overall, April was a good month for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which recorded its largest monthly gain in more than three years, and the PWSI, which had only four losers among the 17 companies on the index. Books-A-Million rode a strong earnings announcement at the beginning of April to post a 17.1% increase in its stock price, and a relatively positive outlook for Hastings contributed to a 13.8% gain. After large gains in February and March, Audible's stock price fell 7.5% in April, the only significant decline in the month.
Source: Reed Business Information
Winners
Amazon 39.79 61.33 54.1%
Books-A-Million 14.24 16.68 17.1
Hastings Entertainment 6.10 6.94 13.8
R. R. Donnelley 36.59 40.20 9.9
Marvel 27.75 29.53 6.4
Reed Elsevier 48.02 50.54 5.2
Losers
Audible 10.39 9.61 -7.5%
John Wiley 37.76 37.45 -0.8
Scholastic 31.10 30.87 -0.7
Pearson 17.12 17.06 -0.3
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index 471.44 508.35 7.8%
Dow Jones Aver. 12,354.35 13,060.00 5.7%