Scholastic shares dive after hours on worse-than-expected quarterly loss

Shares of Scholastic Corp. (SCHL) slid 12.7% after hours on Thursday after the children's book publisher reported a worse-than-expected loss for the second quarter and held to its full-year outlook. The company reported a fiscal first-quarter net loss of $74.2 million, or $2.35 a share, compared with a loss of $45.4 million, or $1.33 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue fell to $228.5 million from $262.9 million in the prior-year quarter. Scholastic's adjusted loss per share was $2.20. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Scholastic to report an adjusted loss of $1.35 a share, on revenue of $268.8 million. Management attributed the results to the summer school break, when the company typically loses money, and "the timing of revenues from state-sponsored programs." Scholastic said it expected full-year sales to benefit from fall releases like a new installment of Dav Pilkey's "Cat Kid Comic Club," an interactive MinaLima edition of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," and the release of the "Goosebumps" TV series on Disney+ and Hulu.

-Bill Peters

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09-21-23 1639ET

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