Best Buy 3Q results top Street, boosts forecast again

By The Associated Press

Best Buy's fiscal third-quarter results topped analysts' estimates and the consumer electronics retailer boosted its full-year earnings forecast again.

The Richfield, Minnesota-based company earned $277 million, or 99 cents per share, for the period ended Nov. 3. A year earlier Best Buy earned $239 million, or 78 cents per share.

Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 93 cents per share. That easily beat the 85 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were calling for.

Revenue increased to $9.59 billion from $9.32 billion. Wall Street expected $9.55 billion in revenue.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, climbed 4.3 percent. That topped the 3.5 percent rise analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.

Best Buy has shown resilience in the face of increasing online competition, improving its stores to allow shoppers to test new technology, investing in price matching and offering speedier delivery options. And it's even joined with Amazon to let the company sell voice-controlled TVs at its stores.

Best Buy Co. now anticipates full-year adjusted earnings in a range of $5.09 to $5.19 per share, with revenue between $42.5 billion and $42.9 billion. Its prior outlook was for earnings of $4.95 to $5.10 per share, up from $4.80 to $5.00 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet predict earnings of $5.11 per share on revenue of $42.73 billion.

For the current quarter ending in January, Best Buy expects adjusted earnings of $2.48 to $2.58 per share with revenue in a range of $14.4 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts surveyed by Zacks forecast adjusted earnings of $2.58 per share on revenue of $14.67 billion.

Shares declined 2.7 percent before the market open on Tuesday.

Portions of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BBY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BBY