Barnes & Noble Narrows Losses, Nook Falls Out of Favor

Shares of Barnes & Noble are higher on Tuesday after the company appears to have been able to stem its losses. For the most recent quarter, losses were $0.64 a share. It's a big improvement from a year earlier and slightly better than expectations. Sales, however, continued to slide. They were down 7% to $1.2 billion, which is a little bit worse than estimates. Sales at stores open for at least a year were down more than 5%, primarily because Nook-related products lost favor. The Nook family, which includes devices, accessories and digital contents, was not even half as popular as a year ago. Barnes & Noble is in the process of separating the Nook segment from the rest of the retail. Book stores on college campuses did better. Comparable store sales were down 2%, but Barnes & Noble said it continues to get new school contracts and increase the available titles for students and educators to keep them reading.