It’s easy to assume that the book publishing industry is fast becoming unprofitable as we’re slowly witnessing the decline of physical books. However, while it is true that ebooks have become the order of the day, book publishing is still a lucrative venture. In fact, according to research, the market for book publishers expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9% from $84.54 billion in 2021 to $88.7 billion in 2022.
According to industry projections, the publishing market is expected to increase by $19.2 billion, with a CAGR of 1.22%. The publishing market is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period from 2022 to 2029. The market is expected to increase over the anticipated period in 2022 because key players are adopting strategies at an increasing rate. If you’re looking to invest in the book publishing industry, the brokerschart.es experts listed the top book publishing stocks to consider below.
- Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL)
Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) has become the best publishing stock for 2022 with a Zen Score of 47, which is 13 points more than the 34 points industry average. It has firm fundamentals and has successfully completed 16 of the 38 due diligence tasks. Scholastic has performed much better than other publishing stocks by 26 percentage points, with a stock return of 4.58% over the past year. The market cap for Scholastic Corp is $1.376B with $34.41M shares out, a dividend yield of 2%, and YTD % change of 0.08.
- Lee Enterprises (NASDAQ:LEE)
Lee Enterprises has a strong buy recommendation consensus and a Zen score of 45. This makes it the second top-performing stock for 2022. It possesses excellent fundamentals and passed 14 of the 33 due diligence criteria. Over the past year, Lee Enterprises’ stock has lost -8.07%, defeating other publishing stocks by a margin of 14 percentage points. The average price estimate for Lee Enterprises over the next year is $50.00, representing a gain of 183.13% from the company’s current stock price of $17.66.
- New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT)
New York Times Co has a Zen score of 41 and is the third top-performing stock for the year. It has solid fundamentals and has successfully completed 15 of the 38 due diligence checks. Over the past year, New York Times Co’s stock has lost -24.66%, underperforming other publishing firms by 3%.
The average price estimate for New York Times Co over the next year is $36.93, representing a gain of 3.47% over the stock’s current price of $35.69. Like Lee Enterprises, New York Times Co has strong buy recommendation status, and you can get aware of how to trade these stocks with brokers like eToro at https://brokerschart.es/mejores-brokers/etoro now.
- Dallasnews (NASDAQ:DALN)
If you’re looking for the top publishing stocks with the highest dividend yields, Dallasnews is your best fit. The yearly dividend yield for Dallasnews (NASDAQ:DALN) is 14.45%, which is ten percentage points greater than the 3.95% average for the publishing sector. Unfortunately, with a dividend payout ratio of -209.8%, Dallasnews’s high dividend yield may not be a long-term sustainable option. If you got curious about trading Dallasnews stocks with Avatrade, you can get all the information you need here: https://brokerschart.es/mejores-brokers/avatrade.
- Educational Development (NASDAQ:EDUC)
Educational Development’s annual dividend yield is 3.48%. However, it’s a wrong choice if you wish for stable dividend payouts, as it has decreased by about 10% in the last decade. However, its dividend has been continuously growing for the past ten years. Plus, the dividend payout ratio of 66.7% for Educational Development shows that its dividend yield is sustainable in the long term.
Should you invest in book publishing stocks?
Definitely yes. Experts from IBISWorld conducted an analysis of the book publishing market for the period of 5 years from 2017 to 2022 and concluded that the industry has already survived the main challenges associated with the pandemic and popularization of the e-book market. Experts called this period for the industry a “period of turbulence”, because classic books had to fight for a place in the sun with large online publishers that offered a more convenient electronic book format and lower prices. Experts noted that the industry’s revenue decreased year on year by 2.1% to $29.8 billion over the five years to 2022, with the most rapid decline in revenue coming in 2020-2021. In 2022, the decline in industry profitability was noted at the level of 0.2%, which allows us to talk about the stabilization of the book publishing market situation. That is why there is no reason to refuse to invest in this industry.
