Q4 Preview: Investors Selling Barnes & Noble (BKS) Shares as Several Overhangs Remain

Investors are now selling Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) shares heading into the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, expected out Tuesday before the market opens. The 2.7 percent mover lower comes as a bit of a jab to bulls as the stock was up nearly 4.5 percent at one point this morning.

The Street is looking for Barnes & Noble to issue a quarterly loss of 93 cents per share on sales of $1.48 billion. If the company can hit estimates, the loss would be a slightly improvement from the $1.04 per share loss posted during last year's fourth quarter; sales were $1.37 billion in the year-ago quarter.

StreetInsider.com's Analyst Ratings History page shows three Buys on Barnes & Noble shares, two Holds and three Sells.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are looking for several factors:

• financials for the company's Digital Properties and College units could be released separately;
  
  
• an update on e-reader sales for the first calendar quarter (industry data indicated a sharp softening in the market); and
  
  
• initial signs of retail stores' performance as the anniversary of Border's closing is approaching.

Goldman believes a shortfall could be feasible, and is remaining on the sidelines ahead of the report.

Barnes & Noble normally reports its quarterly results around 8:30am ET.

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