Barnes & Noble Education's Sales Slow; Shares Fall

Barnes & Noble Education Inc. lowered its outlook for comparable sales for the year as the college bookstore operator grappled with lower enrollment.

Shares sank 17% during early trading to $9.60, more than wiping out the stock's gain so far this year.

Overall sales grew 2%, helped by 34 new store openings, bringing the company's total store count to 771. But a softer retail environment hurt the retailer's top line and dragged same-store sales down 2.9%.

Chief Executive Max Roberts said the company plans to expand its price-matching program throughout the year to remain competitive in the tighter market against rival textbook vendors. In the second quarter, the company implemented the program in over the 400 stores.

Barnes & Noble Education now expects same-store sales will fall between 2% and 3% overall for the fiscal year while it expects total revenue to grow between 3% and 4%. In September, the New Jersey-based company forecast comparable sales to be flat to 2% lower and net sales to grow between 2% and 4%.

Overall for the quarter, Barnes & Noble Education reported a profit of $29.3 million, or 63 cents a share, down from $33.4 million, or 69 cents, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $770.7 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast adjusted earnings of 78 cents per share on $770.8 million in revenue.

Barnes & Noble Inc. spun off the operator of college bookstores last August, as the bookseller battled steep losses at its Nook digital unit, declining overall revenue amid store closings and ramped up competition from Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers. After the split, Barnes & Noble Inc. kept the consumer stores, online business and Nook unit.

Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 06, 2016 11:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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