Best Buy Expects 4Q U.S.Sales to Fall 1.5%

Best Buy  said it expected its U.S. sales to fall by about 1.5 percent in the current quarter due to weak demand for mobile devices, scanners and printers in the holiday season.

The largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer's shares fell 6 percent in premarket trading on Thursday.

The company's U.S. comparable sales, excluding the impact of installment billing plans, fell 7.2 percent in the mobile phones and computing products category in the nine weeks ended Jan. 2.

The category had accounted for nearly half of Best Buy's U.S. sales in the third quarter.

Best Buy, which has been facing intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com had earlier said it expected U.S. revenue to be near flat in the fourth quarter.

The company said its total comparable sales, excluding the impact of installment billing plans, fell 1.4 percent in the nine weeks ended Jan. 2.

Comparable sales rose 1.8 percent in the corresponding period last year.

Revenue fell 3.6 percent to $10.96 billion.

Best Buy shares were trading at $27.54 before the bell.

(Reporting by Ramkumar Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)