Best Buy on Tuesday cut its full-year sales forecast and missed Wall Street’s quarterly revenue expectations, as early holiday shopping and a fresh batch of iPhones and AI-enabled laptops weren’t enough to drive higher sales.
The consumer electronics retailer said it now expects full-year revenue to range from $41.1 billion to $41.5 billion, compared with prior guidance of $41.3 billion to $41.9 billion. It expects full-year comparable sales to decline by between 2.5% and 3.5%, compared with its prior expectations of a 1.5% to 3% drop. Comparable sales includes sales online and at stores open for at least 14 months.
Shares of Best Buy closed on Tuesday at $88.48, down nearly 5%.
On an earnings call, CEO Corie Barry said the retailer saw “softer than expected sales,” particularly in September and October.
“We attribute this to a combination of overall ongoing macro uncertainty, customers waiting for deals and sales and distraction during the run-up to the election, particularly in nonessential categories, [and] expected lower demand between sales events,” she said. “But the impact was even steeper than we estimated.”
Barry added that in recent weeks demand has picked up again as holiday sales gain momentum and election concerns ease. Still, for the holiday quarter, Best Buy has muted expectations.
The company expects comparable sales to range from flat to a decline of 3% in its fiscal fourth quarter.
On a call with reporters, Barry said Best Buy is contending with a few challenging dynamics, including a holiday season that’s five days shorter. She said shoppers are responding to big deals and sales events. Yet she said it expects the peak in sales during times like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to be higher, but the valleys before and after those to be lower.
Here’s what the retailer reported for its fiscal third quarter, compared with what Wall Street expected, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.26 adjusted vs. $1.29 expected
- Revenue: $9.45 billion vs. $9.63 billion expected
In the three-month period that ended Nov. 2, Best Buy’s net income rose to $273 million, or $1.26 per share, from $263 million, or $1.21 per share, a year earlier.
Net sales fell to $9.45 billion from $9.76 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Best Buy is waiting for a wave of shoppers to replace old devices and upgrade to new, higher-tech ones after an approximately two-year sales slump in the consumer electronics category. A mix of factors have dragged down the retailer’s sales, including the spike in purchases of items like laptops, home theater systems and kitchen appliances during the Covid pandemic; the pullback in discretionary purchases as Americans spent more on food and other necessities due to inflation; and the shift back to spending on services, including travel and dining out.
Over the past few quarters, CEO Barry and CFO Matt Bilunas have said they anticipate this year to be one that brings “increasing industry stabilization.” Barry has also…
Read More: Best Buy (BBY) earnings Q3 2025
