Start here if you're new
what it is
It runs college bookstores, websites, and textbook supply chains that sell course materials and campus gear.
how it gets paid
Last year Barnes & Noble made $1.5B in revenue. physical campus bookstores was the main engine at $0.75B, or 50% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 18.9% last year. $1.3 billion mattered most because a low-margin retailer needs scale first.
what just happened
Revenue reached $1.3B, and EPS improved to $0.39 in the latest SEC-reported quarter.
At a glance
n/a balance sheet
5/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
-$23.47 fy2023 eps est
$2B fy2023 rev est
2.9% operating margin
xvary composite: 36/100 — weak
What they do
It runs college bookstores, websites, and textbook supply chains that sell course materials and campus gear.
BNED wins by already being on campus. It operates 1,164 bookstores and reaches more than 5.7 million students, so your school does not need to build its own retail and fulfillment system from scratch. Contract operator (the school outsources the store) → the campus hands BNED the keys → so what: once the store, website, and textbook flow are embedded, leaving is a hassle.
How they make money
$1.5B
annual revenue · their business grew +18.9% last year
physical campus bookstores
$0.75B
+18.9%
virtual bookstores
$0.30B
+18.9%
wholesale textbooks
$0.25B
+18.9%
fulfillment and support
$0.12B
+18.9%
digital education solutions
$0.08B
+32.1%
The products that matter
digital course material program
BNC First Day
$293.6M · 57% of quarterly revenue
It drove $293.6M last quarter, grew 32.1% from last year, and now makes up most of the business. That's not an add-on anymore. That's the turnaround bet.
57% of revenue
physical and virtual campus stores
Campus Retail
over 1,400 stores and sites
It operates over 1,400 physical and virtual campus bookstores. The footprint is large, but the related Retail & Other bucket fell 8.5%, which tells you the legacy side is still under pressure.
legacy base
Key numbers
1,164
store network
Scale matters here. A campus store contract is sticky, and BNED already has 657 physical and 507 virtual locations.
20.9%
gross margin
Gross margin → money left after product costs → so what: BNED has some room to cover overhead, but not much.
$141M
long-term debt
Debt equals 33% of capital and about 48% of BNED's $291 million market value, so the balance sheet still matters every quarter.
185%
quarterly sales growth
Revenue jumped to $1.3 billion in the latest quarter. That is the kind of move a turnaround needs to keep the story alive.
Financial health
n/a
strength
- balance sheet grade n/a
- risk rank 4 — safer than 20% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $141M (33% of capital)
n/a — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for BNED right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
revenue jumped
Revenue reached $1.3B, and EPS improved to $0.39 in the latest SEC-reported quarter.
Sales rose 185% vs. prior year to $1.3 billion, while EPS improved by 105% vs. prior year. Gross margin was 20.9%, which tells you the business is improving but still thin.
$1.3B
revenue
$0.39
eps
20.9%
gross margin
the number that mattered
$1.3 billion mattered most because a low-margin retailer needs scale first. Without sales volume, the rest of the income statement falls apart.
source: SEC filing
Get this snapshot in your inbox
This page, delivered free — plus weekly updates when the numbers change. plain english, no spam.
weekly updates
earnings alerts
plain english
no spam
What could go wrong
The #1 risk is the turnaround failing before the balance sheet gets breathing room.
med
solvency risk still defines the story
The current snapshot already flags BNED as carrying significant solvency risk. That matters more here than it would at a healthier company because the operating margin is only 2.9% and long-term debt is $141M.
If operating performance slips, debt stops being a background number and becomes the main character.
med
bnc first day concentration
BNC First Day produced $293.6M last quarter, or 57% of revenue. That's the growth engine, but it also means one program now carries most of the turnaround narrative.
If adoption slows or campuses push back, more than half of quarterly revenue is exposed at once.
med
legacy retail is still shrinking
Retail & Other fell 8.5% from last year to $221.5M. That decline is manageable while First Day grows 32.1%. It becomes a problem fast if those lines start converging.
The company can win the transition slowly and still lose the income statement if the old business erodes faster than the new one scales.
med
textbook-pricing scrutiny is not gone
A judge dismissed antitrust lawsuits over college textbook pricing in 2021, but the issue tells you where regulators and campuses can focus if course-material pricing becomes politically useful again.
Any renewed scrutiny would land directly on the high-priority course-materials business, not some side project.
57% of quarterly revenue now runs through BNC First Day, while $141M of long-term debt leaves limited room for a stumble. The turnaround can work, but it does not get many retries.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
BNC First Day mix
It is 57% of quarterly revenue today. If that share keeps rising while growth stays above the decline in Retail & Other, the transition is still working.
risk
debt versus margin
$141M of long-term debt is manageable only if 2.9% operating margin does not crack. On a thin-margin business, small misses stop being small.
calendar
virtual investor day
June 25, 2026 is the next chance for management to show whether this is an actual operating plan or just a better-looking quarter.
trend
short-term trading signal
The stock trades 3% below its 50-day moving average. In human terms: the chart is not confirming a clean breakout yet.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
5 / 100
Earnings can be hard to model. In human-speak, analysts do not trust the quarter-to-quarter cadence yet.
risk rank
4
Safer than 20% of stocks means riskier than most of the market. That fits a leveraged turnaround, not a steady compounder.
price stability
5 / 100
Price stability this low means the stock moves like investors are still arguing about survival, not just valuation.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for BNED is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$10
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
Want the deeper analysis?
The full deep dive: dcf model, scenario analysis, competitive moat breakdown, and quarterly tracking — everything on this page, taken further.
see plans from $5/moThe deep dive