NEW YORK (AP) — Best Buy posted a solid second quarter that exceeded Wall Street expectations, but the performances was overshadowed by an outlook that has grown cloudy due to tariffs the U.S. is imposing on trading partners.
Despite easily beating expectations, shares slid more than 2% before the opening bell Thursday after the company stuck to earlier guidance for 2025. The Richfield, Minnesota, company cited the potential impact of tariffs.
Comparable sales, a good barometer of a retailer's health, increased 1.6%, which was in line with expectations. The company had been battered by online competition and also a return to more normalized spending on gadgets after a pandemic-induced splurge by Americans.
CEO Corie Barry pointed out that it was the highest growth for same-store sales, which include online sales, in three years.
The reported net income of 87 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs and amortization costs, were $1.28 per share, which is 6 cents better than industry analysts had expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.
Sales rose to $9.44 billion and also handily topped expectations.
The electronics industry can be particularly hard hit by tariffs because so many good are imported.
Barry said in May that Best Buy was taking a variety of actions to offset tariff costs, including a push on its vendors to diversify their manufacturing. The company, which still faces intense competition, said it raised some prices to absorb tariff-related costs only as a “last resort.”
China remains the No. 1 source for the retailer's products, but Best Buy estimates that the percentage of product cost those imports represent is now approximately 30% to 35%, down from the 55% in March. That’s because suppliers are expanding production outside of China, among other actions. The U.S. and Mexico account for roughly 25% of its cost.
For the year, Best Buy stuck by revenue expectations in the range of $41.1 billion to $41.9 billion and a comparable sales range of anywhere from a decline of 1% to an increase of 1%.
It also left profit expectations unchanged, forecasting per-share earns of $6.15 to $6.30 this year. Analysts expect $6.16 per share on revenue of $41.36 billion for the year, according to FactSet.
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