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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).

Pearson Lifts Fiscal-year Guidance

A new e-bookstore is set to open next year.

A global crisis can throw a lot of decent companies out with the bathwater. That’s where special situations fund managers like Michael Stiasny and others come in.

Market-lagging returns could be written in these two stars.

BloggingStocks: Analyst upgrades: Goldman upgraded CTC Media (NASDAQ: CTCM) to Buy from Neutral on a better outlook for European Media names and raised its target on shares to $17.60 from $12. Morgan Joseph upgraded Movado (NYSE: MOV) to Buy from Hold after ... Read more

The publisher of USA Today and many other publications reported second quarter results this morning that easily topped estimate.  Gannett Co. (GCI) was expected to post earnings per share of $.36, but the actual results came in 10 cents ahead of those projections.  Gannett has not beaten estimates by this wide margin in quite some time.  Revenue was slightly lower than expected; sales slumped to $1.41 billion or a decline of 18% from a year ago.  In addition, the company also revised an earlier write-down upward, and this combined with the earnings beat propelled the stock higher by nearly 30%.  Make no mistake, the problems in the newspaper industry are real and quite serious.[More...]

Last year, I wrote an article about the various publicly traded colleges and universities. However, there are other ways to play the education market.

Most high schools and colleges are starting their fall session in August and September so maybe it is worth taking a closer look at back to school stocks. One of the biggest expenses is a computer, with the primary choices being either an Apple (AAPL) MacBook laptop or a Dell (DELL) laptop. The primary choice for printers is the Hewlett Packard (HPQ). Whether your son or daughter has a Mac or PC, they all seem to use Microsoft Office, made by Microsoft (MSFT).

Apple Inc. has a price earnings ratio of 36 and a “price earnings to growth” ratio of 1.28. Dell has a forward P/E of 17 and a PEG of 1.14. Hewlett-Packard has a P/E of 14, a PEG of 0.89, and pays a small yield of 0.8%. Microsoft Corporation has a P/E of 16, a PEG of 1.24, and a yield of 1.7%.

The other big going-off-to-school expense is clothing. the Quiksilver Inc. (ZQK) brand is the clothing of choice for students who enjoy skiing, snow boarding, or surfing. The stock has a forward P/E of 9 and a PEG of 0.89.

Other students like Under Armour, Inc. (UA), which develops and markets microfiber apparel, such as sweats, T-shirts, socks, and baseball caps. The stock has a P/E of 30 and a PEG of 0.93. Nike Inc. (NKE), the famous athletic shoe manufacturer, is another company that benefits from the parents’ clothing budget. The stock has a P/E of 16, a PEG of 1.1, and a yield of 1.6%.

For college students, textbooks are a necessity but very expensive. In public high schools, the textbooks are usually purchased by the school districts. One of the recipients of these expenditures is Pearson plc (PSO), the United Kingdon based publisher of textbooks and related educational materials for colleges and universities, which has a P/E of 17, a PEG of 1.22, and a fairly high yield of 7.1%. Another publisher of textbooks is John Wiley & Sons Inc. (JW-A), which also publishes technical journals, medical journals, and integrated online learning resources for college students. They have a P/E of 18, and a yield of 1.2%.

Blackboard Inc. (BBBB) markets and services online teaching and learning environment software and has a huge share of the college and university market.. Professors use Blackboard as a repository for the class syllabus, the assignments and homework, presentations, tests, and discussion boards. Although the stock has an extremely high P/E of 145, and the PEG is 2.09.

For a list of all ten of the back to school stocks in an Excel format which you can sort, add to, and change, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author owns MSFT and AAPL.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

The recent restatement of VeriFone Holdings, Inc.'s (PAY) results for the first three quarters of 2007 involves both lower inventory levels and increase in cost of goods. We estimate the restatement to reduce profitability for the nine-month period by 20 percent. It also opens up the possibility of restructuring within the company. Although VeriFone remains a pure... [More...]

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