BNED Barnes and Noble Education Inc

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)

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