Against the Grain: Sell Amazon!: Fight any after-market impulse to dog into Amazon
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Supermarket magnate Ron Burkle's Yucaipa American Management reported ownership of 4,584,313 shares (8.3%), purchased from Nov. 24 to Dec. 31, 2008 at prices that ranged from $13.20 to $16.39.

Barnes & Noble (BKS) downgraded to sell from neutral at Goldman Sachs based on recent outperformance in share price and expected estimate cuts in weakening environment. Price target trimmed to $24 from $28.

Cramer: Few Stock Picks Left in Retail: Except for a few outliers, I'm staying away from this sector, says Jim Cramer.

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Barnes & Noble (BKS) was downgraded from Neutral to Underweight, JP Morgan said. Second downgrade in a month, as 2008 estimates will likely have to come down much further from current levels, led by lower same-store sales.

Deutsche Bank said it is cutting its full-year estimates on BKS by 9 cents to $1.81 a share as FY08 plan disappoints. Maintained Hold rating.

Educational

Barnes & Noble (BKS) was downgraded from Overweight to Neutral, JP Morgan said. Stock is up 23.6% since Jan. 15, as negative holiday sales could be the beginning of a difficult 2008.

Barnes & Noble's founder and chairman, Leonard Riggio, increased his stake to 15.8 million shares (24.4%) from the 15.3 million (22.9%) reported as of March 31. Riggio, the company's largest shareholder, said that he intends to purchase additional shares from time to time.

But, let's get to why Barnes & Noble made the cut into today's 'Insider Purchases and Share Buyback Portfolio.' Leonard Riggio, the company's chairman, continues to buy his company's shares. He disclosed on Friday evening a purchase of 300,000 shares at $38.02, bringing his stake to 13,364,597 shares, or more than 20% of company's total outstanding shares. Only a month prior to that purchase, on 9/11, he bought 100,000 shares at $32.95 apiece. And almost exactly one month earlier, on 8/10, he purchased another 100,000 shares at $32.64 a share.

After physically visiting many of these stores, I see a large potential for slip and fall liabilities. To fully take advantage of discounts, memberships cost $25 per year while other stores like Borders offer free memberships. Borders offers better prices and plenty of coupons. In terms of investor point of view versus the customer point of view, I'd go with Amazon.