Barnes & Noble 3Q profit rises, revenue falls due to softness in retail and Nook segments

Barnes & Noble's fiscal third-quarter profit climbed thanks partly to some reduced expenses, but revenue fell as it dealt with weakness in the retail and Nook segments.

The bookseller's stock declined in Tuesday premarket trading.

Barnes & Noble earned $72.2 million, or 93 cents per share, for the period ended Jan. 31. A year earlier it earned $63.2 million, or 86 cents per share.

The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.19 per share.

Depreciation and amortization expense declined to $47.9 million from $54.4 million, while interest expense dropped to $3.6 million from $7.8 million.

The New York company's revenue fell to $1.96 billion from $2 billion on softness in its retail and Nook segments. The retail segment includes Barnes & Noble bookstores and BN.com. The Nook segment includes digital content, devices and accessories.

Revenue for the college segment increased 7.2 percent.

Last month Barnes & Noble announced that it is keeping its Nook Media digital business. The company had planned to combine Nook and its college bookstores into a single company separate from its retail operations. It has now decided to keep Nook and the retail operations together. It will still spin off its college bookstores.

Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc. declined 36 cents to $24.50 before the market open.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BKS at http://www.zacks.com/ap/BKS

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Keywords: Barnes & Noble, Earnings Report