Ahead of formally reporting results for their big fiscal fourth quarter, which ends May 31, Scholastic announced a sharp reduction in their estimates of earnings for the year. The fourth quarter is “typically” when they earn most of their operating income for the year. Shares fell over 10 percent in the first hour of trading on Friday, down about $4.00 a share, which would be the stock’s lowest level since 2014 if it holds. Earnings per share, excluding one-time items, is now expected to range from $0.83 to $1.03 a share — down significantly from the already-softened forecast last quarter […]
Earnings Reports
Indigo Shows A Loss and Declining Sales in Final Quarter and Fiscal Year
As we told you was expected when correcting the NYT’s appraisal of how Indigo is “reinventing bookselling,” the company reported a poor fourth quarter to end a difficult fiscal year on May 28. For the fourth quarter ending March 31, sales of $199 million (CA) were $16.2 million lower, with same-store sales falling 8.7 percent (affected in part by the timing of Easter). The seasonal net loss for the quarter was ($23.8 million), compared to a loss of ($10.7 million) a year ago. For the full year, sales of $1.047 billion were down $32.8 million, or 3 percent. Overall same-store […]
Bloomsbury Beats Expectations, Despite Decline in Trade Profit and Sales
Bloomsbury reported full-year results for the period ending February 28, 2019, beating analysts expectations on profit. Earnings before taxation and one-off charges was £14.4 million, up from £13.2 million the year before. Charges included legal and other fees and restructuring costs related to the acquisition of I.B. Tauris in May 2018. Sales for the year were £162.7 million, up £1.2 million from the prior year, slightly below expectations. But in the trade books division, sales of £99.3 million were down £2.9 million, and EBITDA before charges was £11.5, down from £12.1 in the prior year. The results were weighed down […]
Bertelsmann Calls Q1 Best Since 2008
Bertelsmann reported Q1 group revenues of €4.21 billion, up from €3.99 billion in the prior year’s quarter. Bertelsmann chairman and ceo Thomas Rabe said this was “one of its best first quarters in recent years” — since 2008, in fact. The company is no longer reporting EBITDA and group profit as part of the quarterly update, and as usual there were no details by division. Fuller figures will come in the half-year results. The company called out Penguin Random House’s “strong bestseller performance,” saying that Michelle Obama’s Becoming had continued to enjoy strong sales, with more than ten million copies […]
Harper Continues Sales and Profit Gains
News Corp. reported fiscal third quarter sales on Thursday, with book publisher HarperCollins registering their seventh straight quarterly increase in sales. Building on the strong holiday quarter, sales once again rose 6 percent to $421 million, up $23 million from a year ago. And the gain would have been larger, since the new revenue recognition standard we have been explaining for a while now reduced revenues by $17 million in the quarter. (The way the standard has been applied, it raised Penguin Random House’s reported sales by €147 million or $173 million for the full year, and so far it […]
HMH Stock Down on Sales Decline
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported Q1 earnings May 9, for the period ending March 31, 2019, with sales of $194.6 million declining by just over $5 million, and seasonal net loss of ($117.4) million, $16 million worse than a year ago. With weakness across the educational publishing markets, as shown by the planned merger of Cengage and McGraw-Hill (itself a bigger competitor looming for HMH), Houghton’s stock was down about 25 percent in the first hour of trading on the weak report. Trade sales (now called HMH Books & Media, but otherwise representing the same segment) were $40.8 million, up $4.1 […]