Barnes & Noble Q2 Earnings Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) Thursday reported a drop in earnings for its fiscal second quarter, as the bookstore chain's retail comparable sales decreased 1.5 percent.

Net earnings declined to $12.29 million, or $0.12 per share, from $13.23 million, or $0.15 per share, a year earlier.

On average, four analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters estimated earnings to be $0.31. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Revenues declined 2.7 percent to $1.69 billion, from $1.73 billion last year, while analysts expected $1.69 billion.

Retail comparable store sales declined 1.5 percent. Excluding Nook products, retail comparable store sales increased 0.5 percent.

The company said EBITDA loss at NOOK decreased 16.8 percent.

Looking ahead, the company expects retail comparable bookstore sales and college comparable sales to decline in the low-single digits.

The company also said it had entered into an agreement with Microsoft to acquire its entire preferred interest in the NOOK unit. Barnes & Noble expects the separation of its businesses to occur by end of August 2015.

Barnes & Noble further said it has terminated its commercial agreement with Microsoft including associated obligations for international content acquisition and sale.