Barnes & Noble Education Q4 Results Top Expectations

Barnes & Noble Education Inc. BNED suffered a wider net loss for the fourth quarter hurt by restructuring charges. However, the company reported earnings on an adjusted basis driven by 7.6 percent increase in sales helped by 4.5 percent growth in comparable store sales. As a result, the company's results exceeded the expectations.

Barnes & Noble reported a net loss of $2.8 million or a loss of $0.06 a share for the fourth quarter versus $0.3 million or $0.01 a share in the year-ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, it would have earned $3.3 million compared to a net loss of $0.3 million in the corresponding period of the last year. Street expected a loss of $0.06 a share.

The company's sales advanced 7.6 percent to $294.8 million from $274.0 million in the previous year quarter. Analysts estimated the company to generate $284.43 million revenue.

Barnes & Noble Education CEO, Max Roberts, commented, "Following our separation from Barnes & Noble, Inc. last year, we have made solid progress executing on our standalone strategy, as evidenced by our fiscal full year sales of $1.8 billion, an increase of 2.0% year-over-year."

He continued, "Our fourth quarter comparable sales increase was driven by strong textbook sales and rentals, as well as general merchandise revenue, which increased 2.6% on a comparable basis driven by strong graduation products and emblematic apparel. Fiscal 2016 was also an excellent year for new store signings and we continued our momentum into Fiscal 2017, with 32 new stores awarded to date and with estimated first year sales of approximately $110 million. In line with typical seasonality, we expect new store signings to be more heavily weighted toward the early part of the year."

Going ahead for fiscal year 2017, the company indicated that it expects to achieve total sales growth of 2 to 4 percent. However, the company sees its comparable store sales to be approximately flat to 2 percent lower than the prior year. Street analysts are looking for sales growth of 3.3 percent.