Bloomsbury stock is up thanks to Harry Potter

While this week has been dominated by the news that Gamestop has skyrocketed with Redditors buying up the stock en masse, Bloomsbury has also reported better than expected financials that has boosted their own stock. 

The British publisher, who holds the rights to the Harry Potter series across the pond, announced that they are expecting to beat analysts goals of £161.8 million in sales and above £12.1 million in profits.

The surge in sales is due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen book sales soar more than 5% in the UK compared to 2019. Harry Potter has been one of the better sellers for Bloomsbury during the pandemic, as well as Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Such A Fun Age and Dishoom.

Stocks of Bloomsbury were up 12% after the news broke, and hit a high of 327p on Friday. The stock was up 7% for the week, a sizable growth for the company, but nowhere close to where Gamestop was.

Gamestop grew 67% over the week, an unheard-of amount for a retail store that has struggled the last few years as more gamers go fully digital. The growth was spurred on by a Reddit group called WallStreetBets, who were taking on hedge funds who had shorted the stocks. The group has also targeted the stocks of movie theater chain AMC, tech companies Blackberry and Nokia, and even clothing store Express.

Bloomsbury has benefited from the lockdowns while most others have suffered, and this is mostly due to the continuing popularity of the Potter books. It remains to be seen how long that popularity will hold as the pandemic hopefully comes to an end soon.