Barnesandnoble.com beats estimates, sales surge

In its first quarterly earnings report as a public company, Barnesandnoble.com narrowed its second quarter loss and topped estimates as sales came in at $39.1 million.

The company (Nasdaq: BNBN) reported a net loss of $22 million, or 17 cents a share. First Call consensus, based on three brokers, called for a loss of 24 cents a share.

Barnesandnoble's sales increased 243 percent over sales of $11.4 million a year ago. In the second quarter a year ago, Barnesandnoble had a loss of $23.7 million, or 21 cents a share.

While Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has branched out into numerous new markets through investments and expansion, Barnesandnoble has indicated it will focus on books and music and complimentary items.

Customer accounts increased by more than 506,000 in the second quarter to a total about 2.2 million as of June 30. During the quarter, repeat customer orders were about 60 percent of orders. Amazon, which reported an operating loss of 51 cents a share Wednesday, had repeat customers account for 70 percent of orders.

The company launched a music store July 7. Barnesandnoble had $689 million in cash at the end of the quarter courtesy of its initial public offering in May.