Shares of Best Buy Co. Inc. leapt 4.5% in premarket trading Thursday, after the electronics retailer reported fiscal first-quarter profit that beat expectations but fell a bit shy on revenue, while maintaining its full-year outlook. Net income for the quarter to April 29 fell to $244 million, or $1.11 a share, from $341 million, or $1.49 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $1.15 topped the FactSet consensus of $1.10. Revenue fell 11.1% to $9.47 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $9.53 billion, while the 10.1% drop in same-store sales matched expectations. Cost of sales fell more than revenue, down 11.8% to $7.32 billion, as gross margin improved to 22.7% from 22.1%. ““In this environment, customers are clearly feeling cautious and making tradeoff decisions as they continue to deal with high inflation and low consumer confidence due to a number of factors,” said Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry. “At the same time, in the first quarter, we continued to see our purchasing customer behavior remain relatively consistent in terms of demographics and the percentage of purchases categorized as premium.” Best Buy affirmed its fiscal 2024 guidance ranges for EPS of $5.70 to $6.50, for revenue of $43.8 billion to $45.2 billion and for same-store sales to decline 3% to 6%. The stock, which closed Wednesday at a 6-month low, has lost 13.8% year to date while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 7.2%.
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