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