Best Buy admits Q4 sales were terrible... just like everyone else
The consumer-electronics retailer reported a 1.5% decline in domestic revenue.
But America's largest electronics retailer wants shareholders to know that it's been ugly across the consumer-electronics-industry board.
Here's CEO Hubert Joly in the release (emphasis ours):
In our domestic business, we exceeded our bottom-line expectations due to a well-executed holiday plan, a disciplined promotional strategy, better recovery on returned and clearance product and strong expense management.
While domestic revenue declined 1.5%, it was against a backdrop where the NPD-reported categories were down 5.1%. In addition, we continued to drive significant growth in the online channel - with eCommerce revenue increasing nearly 14% to 15.6% of total Domestic revenue.
As the company explains in a footnote, the NDP Group's weekly tracking service published February 8, showed that revenues for the consumer-electronics industry fell 5.1% during the three months ended January 30, 2016. Sales of consumer electronic products - from TVs to tablets, and excluding cellphones - makes up about 65% of Best Buy's revenues.
Best Buy also noted that it had a hard time selling phones.
"As it relates to Q1 FY17, in the Domestic business, we believe that the softness that we saw in the NPD-tracked categories and mobile phones will continue," said Sharon McCollam, the company's executive vice president.
The company reported net income of $479 million, or $1.40 a share, which was an 8% drop from the prior year, and higher than analysts had expected.
Quarterly sales fell 4.1% to $13.6 billion, in line with estimates.
Same-store sales - at stores open for at least one year - fell 1.7%, more than the 1.3% that analysts had estimated.
Last month, the company reported that a sales decline for the holiday season. And from the forthcoming fiscal year, Best Buy will no longer report its holiday-sales numbers because of how important January is to the overall fourth-quarter results.
Best Buy shares have fallen about 20% over the past 12 months, and are down 3% year-to-date.