The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. provides information services and products to the education, financial services, and business information markets worldwide. Its McGraw-Hill Education segment operates as a global educational publisher. This segment comprises School Education Group, which provides educational and professional development materials to pre-kindergarten to 12th grade market, as well as assessment and reporting services; and Higher Education, Professional, and International Group that provides e-books, online tutoring, customized course Web sites, subscription services, and materials to the higher education market, as well as professional, reference, and trade publishing for medical, business, engineering, and other fields. The company’s McGraw-Hill Financial Services segment, operating under the Standard & Poor’s brand, provides independent credit ratings covering corporate and government entities, infrastructure projects, and structured finance transactions; data and information services offering financial information on companies, securities, and indices; equity research; portfolio services developing global indices and investable products; and risk management and credit risk training. Its McGraw-Hill Information and Media segment includes business intelligence, analysis, and solutions, such as BusinessWeek, a business magazine; J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information firm that conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior; Platts, a source for energy-industry information and services; McGraw-Hill Construction, which connects people, projects, and products in the design and construction industry; and Aviation Week, which provides multimedia information to the aviation and aerospace industry. Its Broadcasting Group operates nine TV stations, including four ABC affiliates and five Azteca America affiliates. The McGraw-Hill Companies was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Discretionary Industry Analysis

WikiWealth.com Industry Description: the consumer discretionary industry refers to products and services bought with discretionary (normal expenses) income. The Consumer discretionary sector encompasses industries that tend to be the most sensitive to economic cycles and stock market swings. Its manufacturing segment includes automotive, household durable goods, textiles & apparel and leisure equipment. The services segment includes hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities, media production and services and consumer retailing. Read More. Also see the Industry Analysis Home Page.

WikiWealth.com Industry Analysis: During economic recessions, consumers tend to cut back on discretionary expenses to save money during those tough economic times. Less spending by consumers eventually decreases business revenue and stock prices. During economic recoveries, consumers have more discretionary income, so spending quickly increases. Higher spending increases business revenue and eventually increases stock prices. During long economic expansions, discretionary income increase, but at a slower pace than during the initial economic recovery stage.

¹ Investment potential (margin of safety) is a weighted average of the discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), the enterprise value (EV) market multiple analysis, and the Warren Buffett investment analysis. WikiWealth obtains 80% of their quantitative investment potential from fundamental investment analysis.
² The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) analysis for the industry is a broad representation of the WACC for each individual company. A sub-industry WACC analysis offers both stability and accuracy for each individual company.

WikiWealth.com Industry Profit Analysis: The best way to profit from discretionary stock investments is to find the most undervalued investments (Wall Street and Main Street buy ratings) during economic recessions. Those investments should be undervalued (see Wall Street Analysis on left side), and have high Main Street Common Sense investment ratings (see Main Street Analysis on right side). When an economic recovery occurs, discretionary stocks tend to outperform the general stock market, because consumers quickly resume spending on items they wanted, but resisted buying during tougher economic times. Eventually those investments become overvalued, because profits and stock prices increase past their fair values. In other words, the margin of safety becomes low or negative. During the last stages of an economic business cycle, just before a recession, it is best to sell discretionary stocks, because they are likely to decrease in price the fastest. Selling an stock investment is difficult do properly. Expensive (overvalued) stocks with low Main Street Common Sense ratings should be sold at any time to invest in better stocks. Two buys ratings are the best and two sell ratings are the worst possible stock investments. As a general rule, the larger the investment potential (margin of safety), the safer the investment. For more information on stock research ratings click here.

Investment Moats

Investment Moats are fundamental investing theories developed by Warren Buffett and adapted to the SWOT analysis. Investment moats are general characteristics that separate great investments from average stock investments. The wider the investment moat the better. Read more: Investment Moats. For company-specific investment moats: SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Strengths Increase Investor Moats: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist

SWOT Weaknesses Decrease Investor Moats: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist

Stock Price Triggers

Stock Price Triggers were developed by WikiWealth.com to predict changes in stock price direction, which depend on events outside of the control of the company. In general, if SWOT opportunities are greater than SWOT threats, the stock price should raise; the opposite is also true. For more precise measures, examine each SWOT opportunity and threat, then rank them according to importance and timing. The more important the investment characteristic, the greater the impact on stock direction. The sooner a investment trigger may occur, the more influence it will have on stock price direction. Read more: Stock Price Triggers. For company-specific stock price triggers: SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Opportunities are Positive Stock Price Triggers: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist.

SWOT Threats are Negative Stock Price Triggers: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist.

Long Company Description (help)

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., (NYSE: MHP) is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are education, publishing, broadcasting, and financial and business services. It publishes numerous textbooks and magazines, including BusinessWeek and Aviation Week, and is the parent company of Standard & Poor's and J.D. Power and Associates.

history

The McGraw-Hill Companies traces its history back to 1888 when James H. McGraw, co-founder of the company, purchased the American Journal of Railway Appliances. He continued to add further publications, eventually establishing The McGraw Publishing Company in 1899. His co-founder, John A. Hill, had also produced several technical and trade publications and in 1902 formed his own business, The Hill Publishing Company.

In 1909 both men, having known each other for some time and sharing the same interests, agreed upon an alliance and combined the book departments of their publishing companies into The McGraw-Hill Book Company. John Hill served as President, with James McGraw as Vice-President. 1917 saw the merger of the remaining parts of each business into The McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc.

McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc became The McGraw-Hill Companies in 1995, as part of a corporate identity rebranding.

Acquisitions

During the course of its history The McGraw-Hill Companies has expanded significantly through acquisitions, not just within the publishing industry but also into other areas such as financial services (the purchase of Standard & Poor's in 1966) and broadcasting (the 1972 acquisition of Time-Life Broadcasting).

Notable acquisitions made by The McGraw-Hill Companies

Note that this list only includes acquisitions made by McGraw-Hill, not its subsidiaries. McGraw-Hill typically does not release financial information regarding its acquisitions or divestitures.

SWOT Analysis

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