Best Buy Comps Rise 7.4%

MINNEAPOLIS-Best Buy Co. reported strong sales across its brands during its fourth quarter, due to a continued demand for consumer-electronics products. Same-store sales during the period, which ended Feb. 25, rose 7.4% year-over-year across its domestic business segments and 6.4% internationally.

Management is also forecasting 90 new stores for the year and same-store sales growth of 3% to 5%. Additionally, executives are planning for earnings per share to come in between $2.65 and $2.80, up from $2.27 last year, and 10% to 13% growth in total sales.

The company’s 742 US Best Buy stores rang up $9.4 billion in revenue, a 14% jump above the prior year’s Q4, and same-store sales rose 7.3%. The retailer opened nine Best Buys during the quarter. Its 20 high-end Magnolia Audio Video stores posted a comparable-store sales leap of 30.3%, on $55 million in revenue.

The international segment, which is made up of 118 Future Shop units, 44 Best Buys and five Geek Squad stores in Canada, posted revenues of $1.3 billion, rising 24%. During the quarter the company opened three Best Buys and Geek Squad north of the border.

Consumer electronics, which account for 45% of total revenues, were the strongest-performing segment of the business, with comparable sales rising 17.7%, led by a triple-digit gain in flat-panel television transactions. Home-office products, taking up 30% of total sales, posted a 2.5% comparable-sales increase.

The worst-performing portion of the business was the entertainment-software group, which comprise 21% of revenue, reported a 4.5% same-store sales drop. Declines in CD and DVD sales contributed to the decline, though executives say that gaming hardware had a strong, double-digit performance.