Barnes & Noble reported fiscal third quarter earnings on Tuesday morning for the period ending January 31, with sales of $1.96 billion down $35 million from a year ago. EBITDA improved by $24 million to $197 million, and consolidated earnings rose to $72 million (93 cents per share), compared to $63 million (86 cents per share) a year ago. That’s better for the company’s basic health, but it’s much lower than analysts had expected, looking for profits of $1.19 to $1.41 a share according to various estimates. More importantly, the apparent “gain” actually just reflects losing less money on Nook as those sales evaporate; EBITDA at […]
Booksellers
Waterstones’ Sales Continuing Falling, But Daunt Expects Operating Profit Soon
Following the results of Waterstones in the UK is confusing, for two reasons. The first is that the privately-held company releases data on a delayed basis; in late January or early February, they file a government document that shows sales for the fiscal year ending the previous April. (So their results for the year ending April 2014 have just been filed.) The other reason is that the UK media is continuously eager to focus on how Waterstones is being saved, and managing director James Daunt is always ready with provocative quotes to fill the stories. Looking just at the numbers, […]
Merch Sales Lift Results At Indigo
Canada’s Indigo — the country’s “largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer” — reported results for the quarter ending December 27, with sales rising 2 percent to $339 million (CA), and adjusted EBITDA increasing $8 million to $41 million. Same-store sales were up 5.5 percent at their superstores and down marginally in their smaller format stores, while online sales rose 10.6 percent, to $46 million. The improvements were driven by the company’s expanding merchandise sales, with “continued double digit growth in lifestyle, paper and toys, including the highly successful American Girls” boutiques. The company insists that “the core trade books […]
Amazon Has Slow Media Growth, But Slight Earnings Improvement Drives Stock
The sometimes inexplicable world of Amazon performance metrics continues. The company reported fourth quarter sales on Thursday after the close of the market, with relatively modest growth — up 15 percent to $29.33 billion, below analysts’ expectations of $29.7 billion. But their meager net income of seven-tenths of one percent — $214 million, or 45 cents a share — was much better than the miniscule earnings Wall Street was prepared to expect (22 cents a share), and so the stock has risen about 10 percent (or $30 a share) after an hour of trading on Friday. But let’s focus on the data […]
Apple Beats Strong Expectations with Record First Quarter Results
Apple reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday afternoon after the close of the market, facing expectations for another strong quarter of revenues and iPhone sales following the release of the iPhone 6 models. They exceeded those expectations with record results, as sales rose 30 percent to $74.6 billion (yielding profit of $18 billion), with iPhone sales of 74.5 million units. The stock is up over 7 percent in Wednesday morning trading. They sold 21.4 million iPads (compared to 26 million the same quarter a year ago), reaching 260 million iPads sold since their launch in 2010. Services, the line item in […]
Pearson Sees Profit Rising in 2015; WH Smith High Street Sales Continue Falling
In a short trading update, Pearson told investors that 2014 results should be in line with their previous guidance, yielding earnings per share of approximately £720m (of 66 pence a share). Their preliminary forecast for 2015 has earnings rising to between 75 and 80 pence per share. Chief executive John Fallon says in the release, “Despite continuing challenging market conditions, overall we had a good competitive performance in 2014 and expect to report results in line with the guidance we gave at the start of the year. We enter 2015 a simpler, leaner, more cash generative business, well set for long-term […]