Barnes & Noble Opens Higher on Smaller Q1 Loss

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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A pickup in sales of digital content and the popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey series helped Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) narrow its fiscal first-quarter net loss, boosting shares in early trading today.

The company reported this morning that it lost $41 million, or $0.78 per share in the quarter. A year earlier it lost $56.6 million, or $0.99 cents per share. Revenue climbed 2% year-over-year to $1.45 billion. These results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of a loss of $0.98 per share and revenue of $1.48 billion.

Barnes & Noble also said digital content sales grew 46%, while bookstore same-store sales increased 4.6%. The gross margin improved to 28.5% from 27.3%.

CEO William Lynch said in the release:

During the first quarter, we continued to see improvement in both our rapidly growing NOOK business, which saw digital content sales increase 46% during the quarter, and at our bookstores, which continue to benefit from market consolidation … The growth in comps at retail and the continued strong growth of our digital content business, as well as increased cost management focus, were drivers in the business turning from an EBITDA loss last year to slightly positive EBITDA in the first quarter of this year.

Shares were up more than 4% in premarket trading and opened near $12.93. The 52-week trading range is $9.35 to $26.00. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $20.75 before this news.

Trey Thoelcke

Photo of Trey Thoelcke
About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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