Best Buy sales slow as pandemic-driven demand wanes, shares fall
- The retailer's shares fell 7% in premarket trading.
- Best Buy forecast full-year comparable sales between a fall of 2% and a rise of about 1%, compared with analysts' estimates of a 1.6% increase, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Best Buy Co Inc missed holiday-quarter comparable sales estimates and provided a weak full-year forecast on Thursday, signaling a slowdown in the coronavirus-induced surge in demand for computer equipment.
The retailer's shares fell 7% in premarket trading.
More people setting up home offices and school switching to remote learning pushed up demand for laptops, webcams, and other computer accessories last year, making Best Buy one of the bigger retail winners of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the rollout of vaccines has raised expectations that people could start returning to offices and schools, depressing demand in the second half of 2021.
Best Buy forecast full-year comparable sales between a fall of 2% and a rise of about 1%, compared with analysts' estimates of a 1.6% increase, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The consumer electronics retailer's comparable sales rose 12.6% in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, missing expectations of a 14.4% increase.
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