Barnes & Noble more or less met analysts’ low expectations for their fiscal second quarter ending, October 29: Sales fell 4 percent, to $858.5 million, with same store sales down 3.2 percent “on lower store traffic,” even with the help of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Total Nook sales — including content and devices, was down a mere $35 million for the quarter. Consolidated second quarter EBITDA improved to $0.7 million, but the company still recorded a net loss of $20.4 million, or $0.29 per share (compared to a loss of $27.2 million, or $0.36 per share a year ago). With the Dow Jones industrials […]
Booksellers
Book Sales Improve in Indigo’s Second Quarter
Canadian “book, gift and specialty toy retailer” Indigo reported results for their fiscal second quarter, ending September 26. Sales rose 5.4 percent, or $11.2 million, to $216.9 million (CA) for the quarter, driven by “continued double digit growth in the general merchandise business, and growth in the core book business enhanced by the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which balanced the downward sales slide of adult coloring books. Total book sales were up 5.1 percent (3.8 percent in superstores and 4.9 percent in small format stores) on a same-store basis, though they operated one less superstore and two fewer small-format stores than […]
Amazon’s Stock Falls on Slimmer Than Expected Profits; Media Sales Now Even with Apple
Amazon and Google both reported third quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday. Amazon was expected to exceed analysts’ expectations (yes, that’s as crazy as it sounds) but they only fulfilled that halfway: Indeed sales of $32.7 billion were about $130 million ahead of those estimates, rising 29 percent overall, but profits returned to disappointing, with net income of $252 million or 52 cents a share — down from a quarter ago, and down from analysts’ target of 85 cents a share. Those profits were additionally disappointing when you consider that the company’s profit engine — the AWS web services […]
Book Sales Continue Modest Decline at WH Smith, As Profits Improve
UK-based WH Smith reported annual results through August 31, declaring what passes for “another good performance” at their High Street stores — which means trading profit there grow £3 million to £62 million, even as sales continued to ebb. Total sales in the division fell 3 percent and same-store sales declined 2 percent, even with the launch of the Zoella Book Club and the popularity of “color therapy” books, which “were a key driver of sales.” But book sales still feel 2 percent on a same-store-basis, with stationery sales rising and a growing initiative to install actual Post Offices inside the stores. They note that “kids book sales […]
Book Sales Fell $38.6 Million at BN
As usual, Barnes & Noble followed their press release quarterly results with a more detailed SEC quarterly report that offers some additional details on the chain’s performance. As we suggested yesterday, the continuing decline of Nook — with digital content sales falling $7.1 million, or 18.9%, at about $30.5 million for the quarter — was propped up by lawsuit settlement funds and could have been still worse. Noting that “first quarter content unit trends benefited from the eBook settlement,” the company said Barnes & Noble customers “activated” $39.5 million in settlement fund credits, and redeemed almost $22 million of those credits. (Credits from the Apple […]
BN Education Has Flat Quarter
Barnes & Noble Education also reported first quarter fiscal 2017 results Thursday morning, though their mediocre showing was more in line with expectations. Fulfilling our assessment as “the growth company that doesn’t grow,” sales of $239 million were flat even with the addition of 33 new stores “with estimated annual sales of $110 million.” That’s because same-store sales fell 2.8 percent, in particular because textbook sales declined 6.8 percent. Comments from ceo Max Roberts underscored that BN College is officially a student merchandise chain that also sells textbooks rather than the inverse (italics are ours): “The comparable store sales decline is the […]