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Hunger Games Sales Drive Big Sales Gain At Scholastic

March 15, 2012
By Michael Cader

Led by strong sales of The Hunger Games trilogy, Scholastic reported sharply higher sales for the third quarter of $467 million, up 22 percent from a year ago, and a much smaller seasonal loss of $3.2 million, or 10 cents per share, compared to 81 cents a share (or $25.1 million) a year ago. The publisher’s stock jumped over 20 percent (or more than $7 a share) in early trading on Thursday on the improved results and increased full-year guidance. If sustained, it will be the highest Scholastic’s shares have traded since 2002.

Besides Hunger Games, for which “sales of the series reached a high point in the quarter, ahead of next week’s highly anticipated movie release,” ceo Dick Robinson adds in the release that “Scholastic’s distribution strengths were evidenced by double-digit sales growth and profit improvement in School Book Fairs last quarter.” The impact of Hunger Games sales is quite evident in the breakout for Scholastic’s trade book line: This quarter’s sales were $112 million, compared to $43.5 million this time a year ago. (They also cite two other movie tie-ins, Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse.)

In special items, Scholastic did have a one-time expense of $2.5 million related to staff reductions and their voluntary retirement program, along with $3.1 million in bad debt for the quarter and unspecified asset impairments, primarily in the children’s publishing and distribution segment, of $800,000.

Based on the strong quarter, the company raised its full-year guidance for both sales and earnings, now forecasting revenue of approximately $2 billion and earnings of between $2.60 and $2.90 per share.
Release

Filed Under: Earnings Reports, Free, Publishers

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