Ahead of reporting results for the first half of 2017, Quarto Group warned that its earnings guidance “for 2017 and beyond has been set too high.” That’s due to both “a lower-than expected trading performance in the year to date” during “the ongoing soft retail environment” as well as an accounting adjustment from the previous year. With their publishing program weighted towards the fall, they still expect “to perform significantly better in the second half.” The wording sounds mild, but the stock market reacted strongly: Quarto’s have fallen over 25 percent since the announcement. Additionally, Brian Porritt has been appointed interim […]
Earnings Reports
Sales Continue Falling at Barnes & Noble, But Earnings Improve
Barnes & Noble continued to suffer from declining sales in their fourth quarter, ending April 29, but a reduced loss in the period and improved earnings for the fiscal year gave investors some confidence. After closing Wednesday near an all-time low of $6.50 a share, investors were relieved by the improvement in profits and stabilization at the company, sending the stock back up by roughly 7 percent in the first hour of trading, returning to around $7 a share. Sales for the quarter were $821 million, down 6.3 percent both overall and on a same-store basis. Online sales nudged up […]
Nearly Flat for the Year, Wiley’s Earnings Nudge Up As Book Sales Keep Falling
Wiley reported fiscal 2017 fourth quarter earnings for the year ending April 30 on Tuesday morning, with sales of $452 million (up $18 million from a year ago) and adjusted operating income of $61.7 million (up from $51.1 million a year ago), with earnings ahead of analysts’ expectations. For the full year, sales of $1.718.5 billion were down slightly, by $8.5 million, with adjusted operating income of $228 million, versus $217 million a year ago. Interim ceo Matthew Kissner says in the release, “We posted stronger revenue and earnings growth this quarter, largely due to growth in our Solutions business and […]
Indigo Records Their First Billion-Dollar Year
Canadian retailer Indigo reported results for their fiscal fourth quarter, ending April 1, with full-year sales passing $1 billion (CA) for the first time: Total sales for the year were $1.02 billion, up $25.6 million or 2.6 percent from a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $52.2 million, up from $43.1 million a year ago, though net earnings of $20.9 million were down from $28.6 million due to tax factors. Fourth quarter sales were $209.5 million — compared to $220.4 million a year ago, but that was a 14-week quarter. The company said comparable sales for the quarter were up 0.8 percent. Notably, […]
Potter and FX Lift Bloomsbury’s Sales, But Not Profits
Bloomsbury reported results for their fiscal year, ending February 28, with sales of £142.6 million, up £18.9 million, as profit before tax fell £1 million to £12 million. Despite their intention “to become primarily a non-consumer publisher in the B2B academic and professional information market,” Bloomsbury is still very much Harry Potter House. Virtually all of the gains came from their children’s division, where sales rose £18.2 million to £55.9 million — as Potter sales were 88 percent higher than the previous year — and the weak British pound was the other main driver. (Topline sales were up 15 percent, but […]
Lagardere Publishing Gains On Perseus and Rowling
Lagardere Publishing reported results for the first quarter of 2017, with sales of €440 million, up €25 million from a year ago — though €18 million of that gain came from the addition of the Perseus imprints, leaving a 1.7 percent rise in the traditionally modest quarter. A “significant restocking of J.K. Rowling titles” in the UK accounted a portion of the increase as well. The good news is that both HBG USA and Hachette UK improved in the quarter, up 4.1 percent and 8.1 percent respectively; though that is muted when you remember that both divisions declined significantly in the […]