Barnes & Nobles reported a Q2 net income of $12.27 billion or 21 cents per share, down 20.4% from 2008. However, the company beat Wall St. expectations by cutting costs by 3.7%.
An analyst at Credit Suisse downgraded Barnes & Nobles from neutral to underperform. The action took place 6 days before the company reported Q2 2009 earnings.
BKS announced that it was going to acquire Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, which operate 624 college bookstores, for $460 million. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers is was owned by Leonard Riggio, the chairman of Barnes & Noble.
Barnes & Noble Q1 2009 profits dropped $2.7 million as net sales declined by 4% YOY. Online sales dropped 7 percent and comparable-store sales fell 5.7 percent, which was slightly better than what the company anticipated.
For FY2008 (ended Jan 31, 2009), BKS reported net earnings of $76 million, down 44% from FY2007. Sales were up 1.5% to $5.12 billion, while operating margins fell 100 bps to 2.8%.
For Q4 2008, ended Jan 31, 2009, BKS reported earnings of $81.2 million, or $1.46 per share. This is a 29% decrease compared to earnings from the previous-year quarter, during which net income was $115 million. EPS for the full year 2008 was $2.03, beating analyst estimates.
Ron Burkle says he may enter talks with Barnes & Noble after reporting an 8.3% stake in the bookseller.
On November 20, 2008 BKS reported a drop in third-quarter sales to $1.12B (down from $1.18B in the same period a year ago), and cut its annual Earnings Per Share estimate to $1.30-$1.60.
Barnes & Noble reported stagnant sales in the first quarter of 2008, with net sales rising 1.1% but same store sales falling 1.5% and a net loss of $2.2 million for the quarter. B&N also announced that it had put a team together to research a potential acquisition of the second-largest bookseller chain in the U.S., Borders Group.
Barnes & Noble announced a $0.10 cut in 2007 Q4 and 2007 Fiscal Year profit estimates after weaker than expected holiday sales.
Barnes and Noble posted better than expected third quarter results boosted by the sales of new releases like books from Alan Greenspan and Stephen Colbert.
BKS agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle disputes with investors over improperly dated stock options.
