Best Buy Co. Inc.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) is watching analysts boost earnings estimates as its share price outperforms the major averages. The company’s earnings, on average, came in 7% ahead of analysts’ expectations over the past 4 quarters in a row.

Company Description

Best Buy is a well-known multinational retailer of consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment software, appliances, and related services in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico and China. Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $40 billion annual revenue.

Higher Income

The company declared a quarterly dividend of 14 cents per share in mid-December. The dividend, which was paid out on January 27, was increased from 13 cents in June 2008.

Best Buy’s dividend yield of 2% tops the industry average as very few of the companies industry peers pay income.

Solid Performance and Strong Fundamentals

Best Buy has been performing well, outpacing the broader market. Analysts are bullish on BBY, raising earnings estimates by a penny in the last week to $2.62 per share for the fiscal year ended February 2009. Three months ago, Wall Street was forecasting earnings of $2.58.

The company’s earnings, on average, came in 7% ahead of analysts’ expectations over the past 4 quarters in a row.

Best Buy is scheduled to release its next earnings report on March 26.

In its previous quarterly report, the company posted higher total and comparable revenue on a year-over-year basis. Earnings slipped a bit from last year but came in ahead of the consensus estimate by 30%.

BBY offer a return on equity (ROE) of 27%, above the industry average of 21%.

Read the full analyst report on BBY