Sales of books at stores open for at least one year rose 0.8% at Hastings Entertainment for the third quarter ended October 31. The slight gain in book sales in the most recent period followed a 1.4% improvement in comparable-store sales in the second quarter. Total sales at Hastings rose 2% in the quarter, to $112.8 million, and the net loss was reduced, to $3.8 million from $6.6 million.
Although Hastings's bottom-line performance exceeded expectations in both the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2004, the company remains concerned about sales in the holiday season. In particular, Hastings is worried about the prospects for its rental operation, where business was off 1.4% in the third quarter. The music business also continues to slump, with comparable-store sales down 6.3% in the quarter. Hastings's best performing segments last quarter were DVDs and video games.
Despite some problems affecting its top-line growth, Hastings said that cost controls and lower returns will result in better than expected earnings for the full year, and the retailer raised its earnings per share estimate from a range of 27 cents to 32 cents per share to between 45 cents and 50 cents per share. For the first nine months of the year, Hastings's loss was cut to $4.7 million from $7.7 million, and revenue rose 1.9%, to $345.1 million.
