Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) fell in morning trading after the largest U.S. bookstore chain posted a drop in sales for the fourth quarter in a row as demand for its Nook tablets continued to fall and customers stayed away from its brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Shares retreated 3.4 percent to $25.41 at 10:25 a.m. in New York, paring this year’s gains to 10 percent.
Net loss narrowed to $19.4 million, or $0.37 per share, in the fourth quarter ended May 2, from $36.7 million, or $0.72 per share, a year earlier, the New York-based company said in a statement today.
On average, three analysts polled by Capital IQ expected the company to report a loss per share of $0.39 for the quarter.
Revenue fell 10.4 percent to $1.18 billion and matched three Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $1.18 billion.
Revenue for the retail segment slipped 9 percent year-over-year to $869 million for the quarter, while revenue for the College segment fell 8.1 percent to $274 million. Revenue for the NOOK segment tumbled 39.8 percent to $52 million for the quarter.
Retail comparable store sales slipped 1.3 percent during the quarter.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2016, Barnes & Noble expects retail core comparable bookstore sales, which exclude sales of NOOK products, to grow about 1 percent. College comparable store sales are also expected to increase about 1 percent.
The company added that it intends to name chief executive officer Michael Huseby as the executive chairman of Barnes & Noble Education when the proposed spin-off becomes effective.
The company is successfully implementing strategic and operating initiatives resulting in the improved performance of each of our business units as evidenced by our 30% year-over-year consolidated EBITDA increase. We ended 2015 with an improved balance sheet, and also well positioned to move forward with a focus on operations and our customers,” chief executive officer Michael P. Huseby said in the statement.