Barnes & Noble Inc.'s loss widened in the first quarter as the largest US book seller absorbed a one-time charge related to a tax settlement. Lowering its sales outlook given a challenging economic environment. The New York-based retailer said Thursday it lost $2.22 million, or 4 cents per share, in the quarter ended May 3. That compares with a loss of $1.67 million, or 3 cents per share, in the year-ago period.Excluding the charge, the bookseller would have earned 5 cents per share. The charge was related to an agreement in principle with the State of California to settle its long-standing dispute regarding the collection of sales and use taxes on sales made by Barnes & Noble.com from 1999 to 2005. As a result, the company recorded a one-time pre-tax charge of approximately $8.3 million. The company says revenues edged up to $1.16 billion in the first quarter, from $1.15 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 5 cents per share on revenues of $1.17 billion. The estimates typically exclude one-time items. The company reported that same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, declined 1.5 percent in the period. Based on lower-than-expected sales and a challenging retail environment, the company said that it now expects same-store sales for the full year to be slightly negative instead of slightly positive. It also projected that same-store sales for the second quarter are expected to decline in the low- to mid-single digits from the year-ago period, when business was boosted by the July 2007 release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The company said, however, that it is sticking with its full-year earnings per share forecast to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.90 based on a reduced fully diluted share count of 58.5 million shares as a result of the share repurchase activity.
