NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc shares fell on Tuesday in premarket trading after the U.S. bookseller reported a wider quarterly loss and forecast only modest sales growth in its stores next year.
Shares in Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. specialty bookstore chain, were down $1.01, or 6.2 percent, ahead of the market's open, from a closing price of $16.41 on Monday.
The retailer, which is hosting an investor conference day on Tuesday and will lay out its long-term plan to compete as book selling becomes digital, reported on Monday that sales at its stores open at least 15 months fell 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
The company forecast that sales at its namesake stores would be flat or up as much as 3 percent in its next fiscal year, but estimated that online sales -- which include sales of e-books through its Nook electronic reader -- would jump 75 percent to $1 billion next year. In fiscal 2010, overall sales were $5.8 billion.
Barnes & Noble shareholders include activist investor Ronald Burkle who has clashed with the founding Riggio family, which controls the company, over corporate governance.
Last month, Burkle's Yucaipa American Management sued Barnes & Noble and its director over a poison pill that would prevent the company from being sold in a hostile takeover.
Burkle owns 19.6 percent of Barnes & Noble, but the shareholder rights plan is triggered once a single investor's stake rises above 20 percent.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
