Hastings Entertainment 3Q Below Sterne Agee Expectations

Hastings Entertainment, Inc. HAST reported 3Q10 results below Sterne Agee's expectations. “Revenue was $112M vs. our estimate of $118M. EPS was ($0.35) vs. our estimate of ($0.27),” Sterne Agee writes. “Total same-store sales for the company were up 1.3% with Merchandise at +1.2% and Rental at +2.2%.” Within Merchandising, same stores sales for Movies, Video Games, Trends, Consumables, and Hard Back Café were all up, 5.6%, 6.7%, 19.0%, 3.4%, and 7.2%, respectively. Sterne Agee said that the large increase in the Trends category was primarily driven by the strong performance of the new and used Comics category. Hastings Entertainment currently trades at $6.22.