Best Buy Discloses 4Q Loss, Store Shutdown Plans

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss amid slumping same-store sales, leading the world’s largest electronics retailer to unveil new plans to shutter stores.

The company said it lost $1.7 billion, or $4.89 a share, in the quarter ended March 3, compared with a profit of $651 million, or $1.62 a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned $2.47 a share, topping the Street’s view for $2.16.

Sales jumped to $16.63 billion, but that missed consensus calls from analysts for $17.23 billion. The sales decline was sparked by a 2.4% slump in same-store sales.

In an effort to offset sinking revenue, Best Buy said it plans to slash $800 million in costs by fiscal 2015, including $250 million in fiscal 2013. As part of the multi-year cost-cutting program, the company said it will shut down 50 U.S. big-box stores.

While it pares its big-box stores, Best Buy plans to remodel other stores and to open up 100    U.S. mobile small format stand-alone stores in fiscal 2013.

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said the company expects the moves “to provide a better shopping environment for our customers across multiple channels while increasing points of presence, and to improve performance and profitability.”

He added, “These changes will also help lower our overall cost structure.”

Looking ahead, Best Buy projected fiscal 2013 non-GAAP EPS of $3.50 to $3.80 on sales of $50 billion to $51 billion. By comparison, Wall Street had been looking for EPS of $3.69 on revenue of $51.89 billion.

Shares of Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy declined 3.53% to $25.68 ahead of the opening bell on Thursday, eating into their 2012 gain of almost 14%.