Best Buy Co. said Wednesday that fiscal third-quarter earnings more than doubled, thanks to strong sales of notebook computers, flat-panel televisions, and digital cameras and camcorders.
Best Buy said it earned $122 million, or 37 cents a diluted share, in the quarter ended Nov. 29, up from $59 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. The most recent result beat Wall Street estimates by 10 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call.
Sales rose 17 percent, to $6.03 billion.
However, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain said earnings for its fourth quarter and fiscal year will fall slightly short of analysts’ projections, mainly because of a major snowstorm that recently hit the Northeast.
The Richfield, Minn.-based company said it expects earnings of $1.34 to $1.39 a share in its fourth quarter, an 18 percent increase from the year-ago period but below analysts’ estimate of $1.41 a share.
For the full year, the company reiterated its guidance of $2.35 to $2.40 a share, a 24 percent increase over fiscal 2003 but below Wall Street estimates of $2.41 a share.
Shares of Best Buy gained $1.98, to $51.50, on the New York Stock Exchange.
“The bad news is already in the Best Buy stock,” said Stacey Widlitz, an analyst at SG Cowen Securities Inc.
She noted that although snowstorms in the Northeast may have weighed on Best Buy in the quarter, sales in non-affected markets remained on plan.
In other earnings news:
– Circuit City Stores Inc. reported net income of $1.5 million in its fiscal third quarter even as sales fell slightly.
The Richmond, Va.-based electronics retailer said the profit equated to 1 cent a share. In the year-ago period, it lost $17.8 million, but its accountants said they could not provide a per-share loss because of share-count differences tied to the spinoff of its CarMax business last fall.
Revenue in the quarter ended Nov. 30 fell 1 percent, to $2.41 billion, and it had a loss from continuing operations of $24.1 million, or 12 cents a share. That was 5 cents a share more than analysts had expected.
Like Best Buy, Circuit City said the Northeast’s snowstorm hurt customer traffic in December.
“I guess I’ll state the obvious: Less folks come out when there’s a blizzard,” said Chief Executive W. Alan McCollough.
Shares of Circuit City shed 74 cents, to $10.34, on the NYSE.
FedEx Corp. reported a 63 percent drop in fiscal second-quarter profit because of higher-than-expected costs of an early retirement and voluntary severance program.
The Memphis-based package delivery company said it earned $91 million, or 30 cents a share, in the quarter ended Nov. 30, down from $245 million, or 81 cents a share, for the same period last year.
Excluding costs of the employee reductions, which began in August, FedEx earned 87 cents a share, 3 cents a share below Wall Street estimates.
Revenue rose to $5.92 billion from $5.67 billion.
The company said 3,600 employees accepted early retirement or severance, and most of the cost for that fell in the second quarter.
FedEx stock declined $3.30, to $71.01, on the NYSE.
