Stifel Nicolaus Issues Publishing Market Snapshot

Stifel Nicolaus issued its Publishing Snapshot, a digest of recent developments and the current state of affairs in the publishing market.

According to Stifel, the K-12 textbook segment saw net sales rise only 1% in September, while the college market saw a gain of 5.8% in the same time span. This could be partially attributed to crises in certain state budgets; tax collection dropped 11% across 44 U.S. states, constricting funds for school essentials such as textbooks.

Meanwhile, European Union regulators have charged McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) unit Standard & Poor’s with monopoly abuse, which could potentially hit the parent company’s results. The EU alleges that S&P unfairly demands payments for international securities identification numbers.

Overall, the publishing stocks tracked by Stifel trade at 13.4 times forward EPS estimates. This level is 14% lower than the overall S&P 500.

Stifel’s favorite stock at the moment in the publishing sphere is John Wiley & Sons (NYSE: JWa), on which it has a Buy rating. The bank is currently neutral on shares of McGraw-Hill, Pearson (NYSE: PSO) and Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL).