Troy Wolverton
Barnes & Noble.com (BNBN Quote - Cramer on BNBN - Stock Picks) shrank its first-quarter loss despite declining sales, the company reported on Wednesday.
The online bookseller lost $13.1 million, or 8 cents a share, in the quarter. That was down from the $20.5 million, or 13 cents a share, loss the company posted in the year-ago quarter. Revenue in the quarter fell less than 1% to $106 million. No analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call estimated the company's earnings in the quarter. "We are pleased with our first-quarter results, as we made significant progress towards our goal of profitability," said Marie Toulantis, Barnes & Noble.com's chief executive officer. But the company projects continuing losses for the current quarter and the full year. In the second quarter, Barnes & Noble.com expects to lose 10 to 12 cents a share on sales of $80 million to $85 million. For the full year, the company expects losses of 28 to 34 cents a share on $415 million to $450 million in sales. Barnes & Noble.com's first-quarter revenue was affected by a sharp decline in corporate sales. Such sales fell 43.8% to $6.4 million. In contrast, the company's consumer sales increased 4.7% to $99.5 million. While overall revenue fell, the company also cut back on its cost of sales and operating costs. Barnes & Noble.com's gross margin, which measures the difference between what the company charges consumers for its goods and what it pays its suppliers for them, increased 2.8 percentage points to 24.5% of revenue. Meanwhile, the company's operating expenses fell 4.6 percentage points to 37.1% of revenue. The company sharply cut its technology and web development costs in the quarter. Such costs fell 22.8% to $7.4 million. Barnes & Noble.com also cut its fulfillment and customer service and marketing and sales costs in the quarter. General and administrative expenses rose slightly to $6.4 million.
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