Barnes & Noble Earnings Plummet in Fourth Quarter (BKS)

Book retailer and Nook maker Barnes & Noble BKS reported a much wider loss than expected in the fourth quarter as declines in sales were much more than expected.

Further, the company painted a very negative picture for the next year for the company.

Fourth Quarter Results

For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013 ended April 27, Barnes & Noble reported a loss per share of $2.11, much worse than the consensus forecast of a loss per share of $0.99. The loss per share widened 115 percent from a year ago when the company lost $0.98 per share in the fourth quarter.

Revenue was also weaker than expected in the fourth quarter as revenue declined to $1.28 billion from $1.38 billion a year ago. The decline in revenue was also worse than expected as analysts had forecast revenue to fall to only $1.33 billion, meaning that revenue declined double than expected in the quarter.

Full Year 2013 Results

For the full fiscal year 2013, Barnes & Noble's loss per share widened to $2.97 from $1.35 in 2012. Analysts had forecast that the loss per share would widen to $2.01, representing a huge miss of 47.8 percent on the bottom-line figure.

On the top-line, revenue for the full year was $6.8 billion, down 4.3 percent from 2012's $7.13 billion. Revenues were slightly lower than the forecast of $6.86 billion for the full year.

Guidance

For the fiscal year 2014, Barnes & Noble now expects revenue in the retail segment to decline in the high-single digits on a percentage basis while revenue in the college segment should fall in the low single digits. Analysts expect total revenue to decline 2.9 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Shares Drop

Shares of the embattled book retailer declined 8.13 percent pre-market following the disappointing figures. Shares fell to $17.29 per share.