Scholastic Profit And Sales Rise Above Expectations

Scholastic Corp. reported Thursday fiscal second-quarter earnings that rose to $67.9 million, or $1.96 a share, from $64.9 million, or $1.84 a share from the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $1.99 from $1.89. The EPS consensus from Estimize, a crowdsourcing platform that gathers estimates from Wall Street analysts, as well as buy-side analysts, hedge-fund managers, company executives, academics and others, was $1.74. Revenue grew 4% to $623.1 million from $601.8 million, beating the Estimize consensus of $598 million. The children's book publisher and media company said its results were boosted by revenue growth in its trade channels in the U.S. and Canada and by the strength of new Harry Potter-related publishing. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has run up 19% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 10%.