Should Best Buy Get More Credit for Its Q1 Report?

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY | BBY Price Prediction) released its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Thursday. The company said that it had $1.02 in earnings per share (EPS) and $9.14 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates that called for $0.86 per share and $9.13 billion. In the same period of last year, the retailer said it had EPS of $0.82 on $9.11 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, total revenues barely increased, about 0.4%, to the current level. Domestic revenues increased 0.8% year over year to $8.48 billion and international revenues decreased 5.2% to $661 million.

At the same time, comparable sales increased by 1.1%, compared with a gain of 7.1% in the same period of last year. Domestic comparable sales increased 1.3%, while international comparable sales decreased 1.2%. Online domestic comparable sales grew 14.5%.

Looking ahead to the fiscal second quarter, the company expects to see EPS in the range of $0.95 to $1.00 and revenue between $9.5 billion and $9.6 billion, with comparable sales growth of 1.5% to 2.5%. The consensus estimates are $0.96 in EPS and $9.49 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Hubert Joly, Best Buy’s board chair and chief executive, commented:

Q1 was a strong quarter and a good start to the year. We reported comparable sales growth at the high end of our guidance and delivered better-than-expected profitability. In addition to these strong financial results, we continued to make significant progress implementing our Best Buy 2020 strategy to enrich lives through technology and further develop our competitive differentiation.

Shares of Best Buy were last seen down more than 3% at $66.88 Thursday morning. The 52-week range is $47.72 to $84.37, and the consensus price target is $77.41.

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