Radar Movers: Best Buy and RadioShack Sink Lower, H-P Catches a Bid

Shares of Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) sank more than 3 percent on Friday after recently announcing third quarter financial results. For the three-month period ended on November 3, Best Buy posted a loss of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, missing analysts’ already-lowered-expectations for the quarter by 9 cents. A 4.3 percent decrease in same-store sales over the quarter contributed heavily to Best Buy’s poor results, giving proof to Joly’s claim that the company must boost its online sales.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares edged slightly higher and continue to attract attention in late afternoon trading. A survey of retail stores by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and his team has found that supply of the iPhone 5 has almost completely caught up with the booming demand. He says both AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) models showed “dramatic improvements in availability.”

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Shares of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) managed to catch a bid on Friday, climbing nearly 2 percent after plunging on accounting fraud concerns. Alleged accounting “improprieties” at its acquired Autonomy software unit led H-P to a one-time accounting charge of $8.8 billion.

RadioShack (NYSE:RSH) shares fell more than 3 percent in late afternoon trading. The company’s corporate credit and senior unsecured debt was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s to CCC+ from B-. S&P explains, “We believe that it will be very difficult for the company to improve its performance and gross margin in the next year, given the changing industry dynamics, mobility accounting for more than 50 percent of sales, the lack of a permanent CEO (with a comprehensive strategy for the company) and chief merchandising office.”

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