Full-year sales at The Quarto Group fell 5 percent to £106.6 million. Adjusted operating profit dropped 10 percent to £10.2m, though reported pretax profit doubled from last year to £3.6m. The book publishing division had sales for the year of £70.1m, more or less flat compared to last year, and operating profit ahead by 7% at £6.7m. Their co-edition division took a bigger hit, as revenues fell 15% to £36.5m, and operating profit dropped 22% to £5m, with “much of the deterioration” blamed on Quarto’s publishing services unit in Hong Kong. Chairman Laurence Orbach, citing “decent results” borne out of […]
Publishers
Q4, Full-Year Earnings Up at Hastings, but Book Comps Dip
Hastings Entertainment reported an increase in fourth-quarter earnings, with a net income of $9.1 million or $0.94 per share, compared to $4.1 million or $.41 per share in the corresponding period one year earlier. Total revenue for the quarter climbed 5.5 percent to $176.1 million, from $166.9 million a year earlier. For the twelve-month period, net earnings also rose to $6.9 million or $0.71 per share from $4.1 million or $0.39 per share in the previous year. revenues decreased 1.4% to $531.3 million from $538.7 million last year. Comparable store revenues for books, however, dropped 0.5% for the year ending […]
Wiley Rises In All Segments
Wiley reported third quarter sales of $427 million this morning, a 14 percent increase driven in large part by currency gains (up 5 percent excluding foreign exchange). Operating income of $68.3 million was up eight percent, while adjusted net income of 71 cents a share was up 25 percent. Though the results are strong, analysts were anticipating earnings of 74 cents a share. The professional/trade division grew 10 percent at $107 million for the quarter, up 7 percent on a currency neutral basis. The company says “sales growth was strong in all regions, especially the U.S., where the holiday season […]
50 Million Meyer Books Drive Lagardere Publishing's Profits
Having already reported sales for 2009, Lagardere just reported their profits as well as part of their more formal fiscal report. The publishing division recorded of recurring EBIT of 301 million euros (on sales of 2.273 million euros), up 24 percent from last year. “The majority of the year-on-year increase of 58 million euros came from the United States, boosted by the success of the Stephenie Meyer saga,” for which they sold approximately 50 million copies in 2009 (after selling 35 million copies in 2008). In the US alone, they sold 33.6 million Meyer books in 2009. They also announced […]
Weak Pound Boosts Penguin Sales, As Margin Declines
Nothing helps the performance of Penguin and its parent company Pearson like a weak British pound, particularly since they get 60 percent of their sales from the US. For fiscal 2009 that benefit is stark, particularly for Penguin, where currency exchange made up for flat sales and declining margins. Sales at Penguin were 1.002 billion pounds, an 11 percent increase over last year’s 903 million pounds, though the gains and then some were entirely due to currency. The company admits that foreign exchange contributed 109 million pounds; on a constant-exchange-rate basis sales fell 1 percent, and “underlying” sales were down […]
Simon & Schuster Finishes Down in 2009
Simon & Schuster had a weak finish to a difficult year, as sales fell over 20 percent in their fourth quarter ending December 31, down more than 10 percent (or $25 million) to $220 million, blamed on a “soft market.” For the full fiscal year, sales of $793.5 million were down 7.5 percent compared to a year ago. That sales number is also behind their 2007 sales (of $886 million) and 2006 sales (of $807 million). Profits fells further, with adjusted OIBDA of just $13.6 million this quarter, less than half of last year’s earnings of $28.3 million. For the […]