Thursday, May 22, 2014

Why Best Buy Shares Are Plunging Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Best Buy (BBY) shares were sinking 5.7% to $23.91 early Thursday after the electronics retailer warned that same-store sales would be lower in its fiscal second and third quarters, as consumers pull back on purchasing electronics and also await new mobile phone product launches, namely from Apple (AAPL), which is rumored to be launching its latest iPhone model in August.

"As we look forward to the second and third quarters, we are expecting to seeongoing industry-wide sales declines in many of the consumer electronics categories in which we compete," Best Buy CFO Sharon McCollam said in this morning's earnings release. "We are also expecting ongoing softness in the mobile phone category as consumers eagerly await highly-anticipated new product launches. Consequently, absent any major product launches, we are expecting comparable sales to be negative in the low-single digits in both the second and third quarters."

Best Buy said that comparable sales in its fiscal 2015 first quarter fell 1.9% overall, compared to expectations of 0.8% decline. In its domestic segment comps declined 1.3%, offset by a 29.2% increase in comparable online sales, it said. Total revenue fell 3.3% in the May 3-ending quarter to $9.035 billion, also missing analysts' expectations.

On a GAAP basis, Best Buy reported earnings from continuing operations of $1.31 a share. Non-GAAP diluted earnings from continuing operations were 33 cents a share compared to 32 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter and consensus expectations of 30 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Best Buy is holding a conference call at 8 am ET to discuss the results. --Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York. Follow @LKulikowski >>Read More: Target's Big Miss: What Wall Street Thinks Staples' Restructuring Is 'Too Late,' Says Analyst Why JCP's Online Strategy Is Not That Bad

No comments:

Post a Comment