Barnes & Noble Profit, Comparable Sales Rise
04 March 2016 - 2:50AM
Dow Jones News
Barnes & Noble Inc. reported increased profit and
comparable-store sales in its third quarter, though it posted a
decline in retail revenue and a large fall in Nook e-reader
segment.
Shares, which have fallen 15% in the last three months, climbed
7.8% in early trading as the bookseller said it was encouraged by
"improved bookstore sales trends."
Barnes & Noble said core comparable sales—a metric that
excludes newly opened or closed stores and Nook sales—increased
1.3%, led by continued strength in sales of adult coloring books.
Adults have recently ramped up buying coloring books designed for
them as they look to unwind.
For the year, Barnes & Noble said it expects a 1% increase
in core comparable-store sales.
Barnes & Noble completed the spinoff of its college
bookstore group into a new publicly traded company, Barnes &
Noble Education Inc., in August. The core company has continued to
struggle as book sales have moved to online retailers like
Amazon.com Inc. and its e-book business, Nook, has also struggled.
Nook segment sales slumped 33% to 51.7 million amid lower content
and device sales.
Still, the company noted that it was on trend to close the
smallest number of stores in 15 years.
Retail sales, which include brick-and-mortar stores and online,
fell 1.2% to $1.38 billion, hurt by lower online sales and store
closures. Comparable-store sales increased 0.2% for the quarter and
are expected to be flat for the year.
The company reported a profit of $80.3 million, or $1.04 a
share, compared with a profit of $72.2 million, or 96 cents a
share, a year prior. On a continuing operations basis, per-share
profit was $1.04 a share.
Revenue declined 1.8% to $1.4 billion during the quarter.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 03, 2016 10:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Barnes and Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Barnes and Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024