Barnes & Noble's Stock Rallies After Results Beat Expectations

Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc. ran up 3.1% in premarket trade Thursday, after the bookseller reported a narrower-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter loss and sales that beat expectations. The net loss for the quarter to April 29 was $13.4 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a loss of $30.6 million, or 42 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus for losses per share was 23 cents. Revenue fell to $821.2 million from $876.7 million, but was above the FactSet consensus of $783 million. Same-store sales fell 6.3% from a year ago, while online sales increased 2.9%. For fiscal 2018, the company expects same-store sales to decline in the "low single digits" percentage range, an improvement from the fiscal 2017 decline of 6.3%. "In fiscal 2018, we are focusing on ways to improve the business and reignite sales through an aggressive test and learn process and companywide simplification process that will take out costs," said Chief Executive Demos Parneros. The stock had plunged 42% year to date through Wednesday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has lost 12% and the S&P 500 has gained 8.8%.