Barnes & Noble Education, Inc BNED

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-cyclical

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
54/100
Moderate

Ranked against 51 peers in Specialty Retail

About Barnes & Noble Education, Inc

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. operates bookstores for college and university campuses, and K-12 institutions primarily in the United States. The company sells and rents new and used print textbooks, digital textbooks, and publisher hosted digital courseware through physical and virtual bookstores, as well as directly to students through Textbooks.com. In addition, it offers First Day and First Day Complete … Full BNED analysis →

Key strengths

  • Revenue Growth Consistent Revenue growth volatility is low (stability score 0.98), suggesting sticky customer base.
  • Strong Liquidity Buffer Liquidity position is strong (score 0.61), providing operational cushion.

Key risks

  • Scale Without Profitability Despite scale, profitability lags peers (score 0.36), suggesting limited competitive advantage.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Developing
40
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Signals, strengths and risks for Pricing Power

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Signals, strengths and risks for Cost Advantage

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Signals, strengths and risks for Customer Stickiness

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Signals, strengths and risks for Capital Efficiency

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Signals, strengths and risks for Resilience

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Signals, strengths and risks for Scale & Market Position

Where BNED ranks in Specialty Retail

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc ranks #22 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail by moat score — the top 42%. The widest moat in the group is Winmark Corporation (WINA) at 83/100.

# Company Moat score Rating
18 MINISO Group Holding Limited MNSO 60/100 Moderate
19 Murphy USA Inc. MUSA 57/100 Moderate
20 HOMESTOLIFE LTD HTLM 56/100 Moderate
21 RH RH 55/100 Moderate
22 Barnes & Noble Education, Inc BNED 54/100 Moderate
23 Tokyo Lifestyle Co., Ltd. TKLF 54/100 Moderate
24 Savers Value Village, Inc. SVV 53/100 Moderate
25 Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. TLF 52/100 Moderate
26 National Vision Holdings, Inc. EYE 51/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How BNED scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 40 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 70 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 70 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 44 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 51 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 56 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding BNED's moat

What is Barnes & Noble Education, Inc's moat score?

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc (BNED) scores 54 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #22 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail, the top 42%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (70/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (40/100).

How does Barnes & Noble Education, Inc compare with other Specialty Retail companies?

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc ranks #22 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail by moat score. The widest moat in Specialty Retail is Winmark Corporation (WINA) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are RH (RH) at 55 just above it and Tokyo Lifestyle Co., Ltd. (TKLF) at 54 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Barnes & Noble Education, Inc scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Barnes & Noble Education, Inc?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and BNED scores: Pricing Power (40), Cost Advantage (70), Customer Stickiness (70), Capital Efficiency (44), Resilience (51), Scale & Market Position (56). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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