Best Buy Co., the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, reported a 52-percent jump in third-quarter profits and it raised its guidance for the full year.
Best Buy’s third-quarter profit was well ahead of analyst expectations. TV prices fell less than last year. Best Buy added stores, but kept a lid on corporate expenses. And a fluke in the calendar plopped an extra week of post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping into the third quarter.
But what the calendar gave in the third quarter, it will take away in the fourth. Without giving formal quarterly guidance, interim Chief Financial Officer Jim Muehlbauer acknowledged on a conference call that the results implied fourth quarter earnings of $1.70 per share to $1.80 per share. Analysts expected $1.82.
The Richfield, Minn.-based company said the rapid revenue growth of the third quarter would slow in the fourth because the extra holiday shopping week falls in the third quarter, and because this year’s fourth quarter is one week shorter than last year’s.
Best Buy shares rose 48 cents to close at $51.62 after earlier falling as much as 3.7 percent. (link)
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