Retail

What to Expect When Barnes & Noble Reports Wednesday Morning

Chris Lange

Published: June 18, 2019 1:17 pm

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 7:33 pm

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results before the markets open Wednesday morning. The consensus estimates are calling for a net loss of $0.22 per share and $764.87 million in revenue. The same period from last year had a net loss of $0.29 per share and $786.08 million in revenue.

Just three months ago, B&N took a machete to its earnings guidance for 2019, cutting it from a range of $175 million to $200 million to a new range of $140 million to $155 million. Moreover, that was after B&N said it had a rotten holiday season. Shares dropped nearly 28% for the year to date, and it only got worse. Until a couple of weeks ago.

That’s when shares jumped nearly 30% following a report that Elliott Management was about to make an offer for B&N. That report was vindicated at that time when B&N announced that it had agreed to be acquired by the hedge fund for $6.50 a share in cash in a deal valued at $683 million, including debt. Elliott’s U.K. subsidiary, Elliott Advisors (UK), is making the acquisition. Shares in B&N rose in response, but they are still lower than the company’s share price of $7.09 at the end of December.

Elliott Advisors acquired the U.K.’s largest bookseller, Waterstone’s, in June of 2018 for around $279 million. Waterstone’s CEO, James Daunt, remained with the bookseller after the deal and will now assume the chief executive role at B&N.

B&N operates 627 stores across the United States and its BN.com website. According to the announcement, “Elliott seeks to build upon this strong foundation as it addresses the significant challenges facing the bricks and mortar book retail space, applying a model that successfully turned around Waterstones over the past decade.”

Excluding Tuesday’s move, Barnes & Noble has underperformed the broad markets with its stock down nearly 6% year to date. However in the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually up about 12%.

Shares of Barnes & Noble were last seen down less than 1% at $6.66, with a 52-week range of $4.11 to $7.81. The consensus analyst price target is $6.50.