GameStop Total Holiday-period Sales Rose, Despite New Software Sales Drop

GameStop Corp.'s stock reported Tuesday total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 2 increased 1.8% to $2.99 billion. Unfavorable currency movements reduced total sales by $119.5 million. Same-store sales for the holiday period grew 4.4%, with U.S. sales rising 4.9% and international sales increasing 3.2%. New software sales fell 9.7%, as a surge in new sales for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were offset by fewer available Nintendo titles and declines in prior generation software sales. The company revised its outlook for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings per share to the range of $2.19 to $2.25 from $2.12 to $2.32. It now sees same-store sales of +2.5% to +4%, compared with previous expectations of -1% to +6%. The FactSet consensus for EPS is $2.23 and for same-store sales is +1.5%. The stock, which fell 2.6% in premarket trade, has tumbled 33% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 has lost 4.7%.