Barnes & Noble Education's Sales Slow; Shares Fall
December 06 2016 - 10:20AM
Dow Jones News
Barnes & Noble Education Inc. lowered its outlook for
comparable sales for the year as the college bookstore operator
grappled with lower enrollment.
Shares sank 17% during early trading to $9.60, more than wiping
out the stock's gain so far this year.
Overall sales grew 2%, helped by 34 new store openings, bringing
the company's total store count to 771. But a softer retail
environment hurt the retailer's top line and dragged same-store
sales down 2.9%.
Chief Executive Max Roberts said the company plans to expand its
price-matching program throughout the year to remain competitive in
the tighter market against rival textbook vendors. In the second
quarter, the company implemented the program in over the 400
stores.
Barnes & Noble Education now expects same-store sales will
fall between 2% and 3% overall for the fiscal year while it expects
total revenue to grow between 3% and 4%. In September, the New
Jersey-based company forecast comparable sales to be flat to 2%
lower and net sales to grow between 2% and 4%.
Overall for the quarter, Barnes & Noble Education reported a
profit of $29.3 million, or 63 cents a share, down from $33.4
million, or 69 cents, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $770.7 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast adjusted
earnings of 78 cents per share on $770.8 million in revenue.
Barnes & Noble Inc. spun off the operator of college
bookstores last August, as the bookseller battled steep losses at
its Nook digital unit, declining overall revenue amid store
closings and ramped up competition from Amazon.com Inc. and other
online retailers. After the split, Barnes & Noble Inc. kept the
consumer stores, online business and Nook unit.
Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 06, 2016 11:05 ET (16:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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