Best Buy Co., Inc. Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, March 29, 2012. Best Buy is a retailer that sells appliances, consumer electronics, home office products, and software.

Best Buy Co., Inc. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of $2.16 per share, a rise of 9.1% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $2.18. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $2.16 during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 1.7% compared to last year’s $3.37.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company missed estimates by 4 cents, coming in at profit of 47 cents per share against an estimate of net income of. In the second quarter, the company also missed expectations.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a rise of 5.9% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $17.22 billion.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 16 of 22 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 29% to $154 million (42 cents a share) from $217 million (54 cents a share) the year earlier, missing analyst expectations. Revenue rose 1.8% to $12.1 billion from $11.89 billion.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to build on three-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue increased 1.4% in the first quarter and 0.1% in the second quarter before climbing again in the third quarter.

Stock Price Performance: Between December 27, 2011 and March 23, 2012, the stock price rose $4.24 (18.2%), from $23.27 to $27.51. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between October 3, 2011 and October 12, 2011, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 16.7% (+$3.67) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between November 16, 2011 and November 25, 2011 when shares fell for seven straight days, dropping 8.7% (-$2.41) over that span.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com