Booksellers

Barnes & Noble Education reported fiscal fourth quarter sales (through April), with new store openings and the MBS Textbook Exchange acquisition lifting sales modestly. Stores sales of $314 million were up $19 million with new stores and a 1.4 percent increase in same-store sales, and MBS added another $34 million in the quarter. They had consolidated net income of just $200,000. The decent finish still left same-store sales down 3 percent for the full fiscal year. Including the small contribution from MBS, sales of $1.874 billion were up $66 million, with consolidated net income of $5.4 million. The company opened 38 […]

Barnes & Noble continued to suffer from declining sales in their fourth quarter, ending April 29, but a reduced loss in the period and improved earnings for the fiscal year gave investors some confidence. After closing Wednesday near an all-time low of $6.50 a share, investors were relieved by the improvement in profits and stabilization at the company, sending the stock back up by roughly 7 percent in the first hour of trading, returning to around $7 a share. Sales for the quarter were $821 million, down 6.3 percent both overall and on a same-store basis. Online sales nudged up […]

Canadian retailer Indigo reported results for their fiscal fourth quarter, ending April 1, with full-year sales passing $1 billion (CA) for the first time: Total sales for the year were $1.02 billion, up $25.6 million or 2.6 percent from a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $52.2 million, up from $43.1 million a year ago, though net earnings of $20.9 million were down from $28.6 million due to tax factors. Fourth quarter sales were $209.5 million — compared to $220.4 million a year ago, but that was a 14-week quarter. The company said comparable sales for the quarter were up 0.8 percent. Notably, […]

Amazon reported first quarter sales on Thursday afternoon, with net revenues rising 23 percent to $35.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with $29.1 billion in 2016. Operating income was down modestly at $1.05 billion, but net income rose to $724 million — compared to $513 million a year ago, because of lower income taxes. As usual, AWS (Amazon Web Services) on its own generated most of the operating income, at $890 million. The big news is that the company recategorized some of their revenue breakouts. Unfortunately, they no longer quantify the slower-growing media categories that included books, ebooks, and digital audio. Indicative of the […]

Barnes & Noble followed a bad holiday sales period with a poor full report on their fiscal third quarter, reducing both sales and earnings expectations for the full year. After ceo Len Riggio said in early January, “Post-holiday traffic and sales have improved and we are optimistic for the remainder of the fiscal year,” adding, “we think we’re going to be back on track before the holidays and through the holidays,” we learn he was wrong. By the company’s account there was a little window of rebounding that has already faded: “despite sales improvements post-holiday, trends softened in late January […]

The privately-held MBS Textbook Exchange, majority owned by Len Riggio and other Riggio family members, has been sold to Barnes & Noble Education — which also used to be privately owned by the Riggio family, and where the Riggios currently hold about 16 percent of shares — for $174.2 million in cash. For the fiscal year ending August 31, 2016, MBS had sales of $500 million and EBITDA of approximately $54.7 million. BNED management expects the purchase to be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2018 and “deliver operational synergies over time.” A used textbook wholesaler, which also sells new and used […]