Books-A-Million said sales for the third quarter ending November 1 increased slightly from the previous year, up 1.2 percent to $101.2 million. Same-store sales inched up an equivalent amount, 1.8 percent, while their net loss of $6.9 million, or 50 cents per share was almost exactly the same amount lost in last year’s third quarter. President and ceo Terrance Finley said in the release: “We delivered solid sales performance in our retail stores as we built on the results from the prior quarter. We saw positive comparable sales in the largest categories in our core book business led by Kids […]
Booksellers
Amazon Misses Wall Street’s Expectations On Bigger Loss; Shares Decline
Amazon announced third quarter sales after the close of the market on Thursday afternoon, missing analysts’ expectations on both sales and earnings and disappointing on guidance for the next quarter as well. The stock dropped sharply in after-market trading Thursday, down over 11 percent (or $35 a share), though in regular Friday morning trades the decline has been less severe — down about 7 percent or $21.50 a share. Amazon’s sales still grew by 20 percent, to $20.58 billion (though as we reported earlier in the day, analysts were looking for $20.84 billion) and the net loss of $437 million (or 95 cents […]
Bloomsbury Declines In First Half on Lower Adult Trade Sales
Bloomsbury reported weak sales and earnings for the first half of 2014, with revenues down 5 percent (or £2.6 million) to £46.6 million, and pre-tax profit down 26% (or £.6 million) to £1.7 million. The company blamed the comparison to an “exceptional” first half last year on the release of Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed, and said their sales will be “significantly second half weighted.” At the same time, however, the company tried to persuade investors to get excited about the new trilogy of Harry Potter movies due in 2016 through 2020 to balance out the current declines. All […]
Apple Celebrates Another Big Quarter
Apple reported fiscal fourth quarter results after the close of the market on Monday, with a strong launch of the new iPhones moving over 39 million units and taking company sales to $42 billion for the quarter, up 12 percent compared to a year ago. iPad sales declined 13 percent in units, at 12.3 million devices for the period, but ceo Tim Cook called that a “speed bump” in the investor conference call. Apple has now sold approximately 239 million iPads since their launch in 2010. In the category we keep a close eye on — what they call iTunes/Software/Services […]
Google Play Maintains Rapid Growth, and More
Google reported third quarter revenues after the close of the market on Thursday, and the company continues to show significant growth in the business segment that includes the Google Play Store. Called “other revenues” by the company (also including their hardware line and their Enterprise software business), the segment had sales of $1.84 billion in the quarter — up 50 percent from a year ago. Google said the segment growth came “mainly from the Play Store, but also complemented by an increase in licensing revenue.” In their investor call, they said: “Google Play’s growth continues to impress. It’s a linchpin […]
Books Sales Fall Again At WH Smith, As Profits Improve
WH Smith reported preliminary results for fiscal 2014, with sales at their High Street stores falling 6 percent to £684 million. Book sales overall fell more, down 8 percent for the year as the “market continues to be challenging” (after declining 6 percent in the previous year). Same-store sales were down 5 percent, but their cost savings program helped profit for the segment rise 4 percent to £58 million. The company notes: “While the eBooks market continues to see growth, it is evolving as we had expected with rates of growth and value penetration slowing. eBooks remain a relatively small […]