Big Gainers: Scholastic Corp & Barnes & Noble (NASDAQ:SCHL, NYSE:BKS)
Scholastic Corp (NASDAQ:SCHL) shares soared 7.14% to $33.18 in the pre-market session after the company lifted its full year outlook on stronger than anticipated sales of The Hunger Games trilogy following the March 23rd movie release.
The company now projects to earn $3.40 per share, compared to the prior guidance of a range of $2.60 to $2.90 per share.
The company noted that the updated earnings guidance excludes the impact of one-time items associated with cost reduction programs and non-cash, non-operating items, which, through the third quarter ended February 29, 2012, were $0.29 per share.
The company said its prior 2012 guidance for revenue and free cash flow remains unchanged.
While announcing the third-quarter results, the company expected fiscal 2012 total revenue of about $2.0 billion.
Analysts current expect the company to report $2.65 per share on revenues of $2.02 billion for fiscal 2012.
Scholastic Corporation together with its subsidiaries is a global children’s publishing, education and media company. Scholastic is a publisher and distributor of children’s books and a provider of educational technology products and related services. Scholastic also creates educational and entertainment materials and products for use in school and at home.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) shares are showing heavy buying in the pre-market session with the stock is up over 91% on news that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will invest $300 million in a new subsidiary that combines the bookseller’s Nook digital reader and college businesses.
The investment will give Microsoft about 18% of the unit, which has yet to be named, New York-based Barnes & Noble said today in a statement. The bookseller will own the remainder of the business, which has a valuation of $1.7 billion.
“Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business,” Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said in a statement.