2016-07-29 12:23:54 | Before the Move: New 'Harry Potter' setting records ahead of U.S. releaseAuthor J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," the eighth book in the young adult wizarding series, and the first to be released as a play and not a novel, will be released in the U.S. on midnight Sunday, and many retailers will be opening their doors for midnight launch parties. U.S. publisher Scholastic (SCHL) has printed 4.5M copies of the book for the launch, and the publisher said it is expecting double-digit growth in its trade-publishing division over the next year due in large part to "Harry Potter" sales. Barnes & Noble (BKS) and Amazon (AMZN) both said the new "Harry Potter" is their most pre-ordered book since the last book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," and Barnes & Noble added that it believes it will be their biggest-selling title of the year. After Scholastic's fourth quarter earnings on July 21, Stifel analysts Drew Crum and David Pang released a research note on the publisher, saying they see "favorable trends for the children's books category, further share gains in education, and contributions from the upcoming content cycle for Harry Potter" which they believe are "positives." However, the analysts said their "preference is to buy the shares on weakness," and maintained a Hold rating on Scholastic shares. Shares of Scholastic are trading about 1% higher since the company released its earnings, and are up fractionally in Friday afternoon trading. | |
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