One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$7.08 our estimate vs market $10.74
Wall Street consensus: $17.25 (143.8% higher than our fair-value estimate)
52% above our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.
BNED · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Specialty Retail
Current price
$10.74
52-week range
$5.90 - $14.75
Market cap
$372.30M
Balance sheet
Stretched
3.56x Stretched
Net debt $265.40M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 0.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 8.3% on equity, ahead of 33% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 5/10 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from -3.3% to -5.9% over 3 years.
What this company does
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.
Barnes & Noble Education runs bookstores for colleges and K-12 schools, making most of its money from selling and renting textbooks and other course materials. The company also sells school-branded merchandise and is growing its subscription-like programs that bundle all required class materials for a set price. This is important because it helps create more recurring revenue (income that is stable and predictable, like a monthly subscription) rather than relying on one-time sales at the beginning of each semester.
How the company got here
Originally the college bookstore division of the larger Barnes & Noble, the company was spun off into its own separate, publicly traded entity in 2015. This move allowed Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) to focus entirely on the educational market. The business started in 1965 with a single student bookstore in New York City and grew by managing on-campus stores for colleges. Becoming an independent company enabled BNED to invest more in digital learning tools and other educational services to meet the changing needs of students and universities.
What it actually does
Barnes & Noble Education runs physical and online bookstores for colleges, universities, and K-12 schools across the United States. Think of them as the official store for a campus, where students can buy or rent textbooks, both new and used, as well as digital versions. Beyond books, they sell school-branded apparel like sweatshirts and hats, school supplies, and even snacks and drinks in their campus stores. The company partners directly with schools to manage these retail operations, making it a central part of the student experience.
Retail
This is the company's largest business area, which operates the campus bookstores and their websites. It's broken down into two main product categories: Course Materials and General Merchandise. Course Materials, which includes textbooks in all formats (print, digital, new, used, and rental), makes up the majority of the company's revenue (the money it brings in from sales). General Merchandise is everything else sold in the bookstore, such as clothing with the school's logo, notebooks, pens, backpacks, and technology products.
Wholesale
Through its subsidiary, MBS Textbook Exchange, the company also operates a wholesale business. This segment buys large quantities of used textbooks from various sources, including students and other bookstores. It then resells these books to other retailers, including its own campus stores and competitors. This part of the business helps ensure a steady supply of affordable used textbooks for students across the country.
What management is betting on now
The company is heavily focused on a program called 'First Day Complete,' where the cost of all required course materials is bundled directly into a student's tuition or fees. This strategy aims to provide students with their materials at a lower price by the first day of class, which can improve academic performance. For the business, it creates a more predictable revenue stream (money coming in) by locking in sales that might otherwise be lost to outside competitors. Management is also focused on growing its e-commerce (online sales) capabilities and expanding its general merchandise offerings through partnerships.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2025 Q2
$44.35M
FY2025 Q3
$-44.72M
FY2025 Q4
$49.52M
FY2026 Q1
$-71.34M
FY2026 Q2
$61.92M
FY2026 Q3
$-33.12M
FY2026 Q4
$76.39M
FY2027 Q1
$-56.40M
Revenue
$290.60M
Net income
$-12.91M
Diluted EPS
-0.37
Operating cash flow
$-52.87M
Free cash flow
$-56.40M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$267.10M
Net income
$3.48M
Diluted EPS
0.12
Operating cash flow
$80.81M
Free cash flow
$76.39M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$515.09M
Net income
$6.66M
Diluted EPS
0.19
Operating cash flow
$-29.39M
Free cash flow
$-33.12M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$644.41M
Net income
$25.00M
Diluted EPS
0.72
Operating cash flow
$66.24M
Free cash flow
$61.92M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$288.16M
Net income
$-18.27M
Diluted EPS
-0.54
Operating cash flow
$-67.60M
Free cash flow
$-71.34M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$281.79M
Net income
$-23.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.68
Operating cash flow
$53.11M
Free cash flow
$49.52M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$466.32M
Net income
$7.11M
Diluted EPS
0.23
Operating cash flow
$-41.95M
Free cash flow
$-44.72M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$602.12M
Net income
$49.73M
Diluted EPS
1.87
Operating cash flow
$47.41M
Free cash flow
$44.35M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $7.08 vs current price $10.74
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $17.25 (143.8% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $7.08 a share — about 34.1% away from today's price of $10.74, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $265.4M. Interest coverage 3.6x.
Net debt
$265.40M
Interest coverage
3.56x
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 3.6 times over. and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
BNED
BASELINE
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.
Total debt $273.21M Interest coverage 3.56x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $50.72M Interest coverage -194.67x -100% vs BNED This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with BNED.
Total debt $0.00 Interest coverage 21.99x +517% vs BNED Carries about 6.2x more debt cushion than BNED.
Total debt $153.47M Interest coverage 12.73x +257% vs BNED Carries about 3.6x more debt cushion than BNED.
Total debt $1.38B Interest coverage 6.75x +89% vs BNED Carries about 1.9x more debt cushion than BNED.
Total debt $2.35B Interest coverage 7.95x +123% vs BNED Carries about 2.2x more debt cushion than BNED.
What you should know
The case for and against BNED
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 0.1% last year.
-
Returns 8.3% on equity, ahead of 33% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 5/10 years.
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from -3.3% to -5.9% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
16.27x
Forward P/E
10.63x
P/B
1.34x
P/S
0.22x
EV/EBITDA
8.60x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
21.4%
Operating margin
-5.9%
Net margin
1.3%
ROE
8.3%
ROA
2.9%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.98x
Current ratio
1.66x
Quick ratio
0.52x
Total debt
$273.21M
Total cash
$7.81M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.72B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
29.6%
EPS TTM
0.66
EPS 5Y CAGR
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Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$64.79M
Free CF TTM
$33.86M
FCF margin
2.0%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
3.0%
Payout ratio
12.1%
Last ex-div date
2026-07-16