Best Buy Net Income Falls 18%, Trailing Analysts' Estimates
By Mark Clothier
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. consumer-electronics chain, said profit fell 18 percent on sales of less profitable products such as laptop computers. Earnings trailed analysts' estimates, sending the shares down 3.6 percent.
Net income dropped to $192 million, or 39 cents a share for the first quarter ended June 2 from $234 million or 47 cents a year ago, Best Buy said in a statement.
Sales rose 14 percent to $7.93 billion, the smallest gain in three quarters, as falling prices for flat-panel television sets cut revenue growth for electronics retailers.
``There's a lot of question marks out there, especially in terms of flat-panel TV demand,'' Bryan Keane, an analyst with Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC, said June 15. The company has $10 billion under management.
Shares of Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minnesota, lost $1.71 to $46.30 as of 8:04 a.m. in New York. They had already dropped 2.4 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a loss of 13 percent for Circuit City.
Analysts estimated Best Buy would earn 50 cents a share, the average of 13 projections compiled by Bloomberg, while 18 predicted revenue of $7.85 billion. The first quarter is typically Best Buy's smallest based on sales.
Mitch Kaiser, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York, estimated sales in stores open at least 14 months would rise 1.3 percent. Same-store sales are a key measure of a retailer's health, since they exclude stores recently opened or closed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Clothier in Atlanta at mclothier@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 19, 2007 08:09 EDT |
