Best Buy's Same-Store Sales Beat Expectations

Best Buy Co Inc , the No. 1 U.S. electronics retailer, reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly same-store sales, helped by higher online sales and strong demand for consumer electronics and mobile phones.

The company's forecast for full-year adjusted profit also exceeded expectations, helping to boost its shares 8.3 percent in premarket trading on Thursday.

Best Buy said sales at established stores rose 1.8 percent in the third quarter ended Oct. 29. Analysts on average had expected a 1 percent rise, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.

Domestic online revenue jumped 24.1 percent, making up 10.8 percent of total sales for the quarter, compared with 8.8 percent in the year-earlier period.

Consumer electronics revenue rose 4.9 percent on a comparable store basis, while sales of computers and mobile phones climbed 1.6 percent compared with a fall of 0.9 percent in the same quarter last year.

Best Buy's net income rose to $194 million, or 61 cents per share, from $125 million, or 36 cents per share a year earlier.

The Richfield, Minnesota-based company's net sales rose 1.4 percent to $8.95 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $8.85 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding certain items, Best Buy earned 62 cents per share, beating analysts' average estimate of 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

However, the company said same-store sales could decline in the holiday shopping quarter due to recent product recalls and the unavailability of certain products.

Best Buy sold Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's <005930.KS> Galaxy Note 7 phones, which were scrapped following a spate of incidents in which the devices caught fire.

Up to Wednesday's close of $40.45, Best Buy's shares had risen about 35 percent this year.

(Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto and Sai Sachin Ravikumar)