Best Buy Shows Signs Of Recovery With Q1 Earnings Beat

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Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) is showing signs of recovery as it reported first quarter earnings that exceeded the consensus estimates of Wall Street analysts.

The stock price of the largest consumer electronics retailer is trading $26.07 per share, up by more than 2% at the time of this writing, around 11:30 A.M. in New York.

Best Buy’s financial results

Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) posted $0.33 adjusted earnings per share compared with its $0.32 adjusted earnings per share in the same period a year earlier. Analysts had forecast that the electronics retailer would only deliver $0.20 adjusted earnings per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company generated $9.03 billion in revenue, down from $9.3 billion revenue last year. It is notable that Best Buy’s rate of revenue decline slowed down from 29% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 3.3% for the first quarter ended May 3, 2014.

Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) said its adjusted operating income rate improved by 30 basis points due to a $161 million cost reduction in SG&A.

In a statement, Best Buy’s CEO Hubert Joly said, “This quarter reflects continued progress in our Renew Blue transformation… “Beyond our financial results, we made progress against our three business imperatives, which are to improve our operational performance; build our foundational capabilities to unlock future growth strategies; and leverage our unique assets to create a differentiated value proposition that is meaningful to our customers and our vendors.”

Business progress

According to Joly, the progress achieved by Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) includes leveraging its new ship-from store digital marketing capabilities to help drive a 29% increase in domestic comparable sales; announcing new home theater stores-within-a-store vendor partnerships with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:0059935) and Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758); launching new mobile installment billing programs; and increasing its annualized Renew Blue cost reductions by $95 million.

In a note to investors, David Schick, an analyst at Stifel commented, “The new management team is working to untangle the old knot and set up more profitable pathways to customers. We also believe vendors are showing support for BBY’s success.”

Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) paid a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share of its common stock or $59 million on April 14.

For the second and third quarters, the company is expecting to see “ongoing industry-wide sales declines” in many consumer electronics categories”, particularly softness in the mobile phone category as consumers anticipate the launching of new products.

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