As I previewed a few days ago, consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) released quarterly results yesterday to very decent fanfare. BBY shares are up over 1% today but they dropped 2.5% yesterday in response to the earnings. This is despite the quarterly results showing the retailer to be in very good shape, all things considered, posting an 18% jump in fourth-quarter profit. The Street, meanwhile, yawned. Apparently, a good impression takes more -- much more -- than that.Best Buy earned $763 million ($1.55 EPS) for the fourth quarter, up from $644 million ($1.29 EPS) for the year-ago period, while beating consensus estimates by 3 cents per share. Revenue topped out for the quarter at $12.9 billion while same-store sales crept up steadily to 5.9%.
Best Buy seems to be making all the right moves recently as it entrenches itself as the largest and most profitable consumer electronics chain in the U.S. (and outside of it), by entering the services market in a much larger way than it has in the past with the Speakeasy purchase. Meanwhile, competitors Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) and CompUSA are floundering pretty badly. It's not too easy to see who the winner is here, yes?
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