Books Flat at Hastings

-- Publishers Weekly, 5/18/2009 7:37:00 AM

Same store sales of books inched ahead 0.2% at Hastings Entertainment in the first quarter ended April 30. Used and value books plus the Stephenie Meyer titles and The Shack topped sales in the period, Hastings reported. For the entire company, revenue fell 4.7%, to $125.7 million, and net income dropped 43%, to $1.7 million. Earnings were actually higher than projections, which the company attributed to cost cutting, including reducing inventory by $13.3 million. During the quarter, Hastings also lowered its debt by $9.2 million. 

The strongest segment performers in the quarter were Hastings’ café and electronics categories. The music segment continued to drag down results, with comp sales off 15.2%, while video games and movie comp sales fell 10.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Hastings said it is leaving its full year guidance unchanged, projecting earnings of 40 cents to 45 cents per share.