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Best Buy (BBY) Stock Slips 0.51% Ahead of Q2 Earnings: What To Watch

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Shares of Best Buy (BBY - Free Report) dipped 0.51% during regular trading hours Monday in a sign that investors might be a bit nervous ahead of the retailer’s second-quarter earnings release Tuesday. With that said, BBY stock is still up roughly 19% over the last three months, so let’s see what to really expect from Best Buy’s Q2 financial results.

Second quarter earnings season has treated retailers well. Industry heavyweights Target (TGT - Free Report) and Walmart (WMT - Free Report) both reported some of their strongest comparable store sales growth in roughly 10 years, while smaller players like Nordstrom (JWN - Free Report) and others also reported strong results. However, retailers such as Foot Locker (FL - Free Report) saw their stock prices sink despite relatively solid earnings and revenue beats because most of the good was already priced in.

Best Buy has seen its stock price skyrocket nearly 110% during the last 24 months. Shares of BBY have slowed down over the last year, with its stock price up just over 30%. But Best Buy stock has once again surged recently, which includes a roughly 10% jump in the last month in the run-up to BBY’s quarterly earnings results.

Best Buy Q2

Our current Zacks Consensus Estimate is calling for the electronics and technology retailer’s quarterly revenues to climb by 3.5% to hit $9.25 billion. At the other end of the income statement, Best Buy’s adjusted quarterly earnings are projected to touch $0.83 per share this quarter, which would represent a 20.3% expansion. Still, we need to know what chance BBY has to surpass our earnings estimate.

Luckily, we can turn to our exclusive Earnings ESP figure to help us find out. Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter. The Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change.

This is done because, generally speaking, when an analyst posts an estimate right before an earnings release, it means that they have fresh information which could potentially be more accurate than what analysts thought about a company two or three months ago.

A positive Earnings ESP paired with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better ranking helps us feel confident about the potential for an earnings beat. In fact, our 10-year backtest has revealed that this methodology has accurately produced a positive surprise 70% of the time.

Best Buy currently sports an earnings ESP of 1.72% and has seen strong positive earnings estimate revision activity recently. Best Buy also rocks a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which means that our model suggests that BBY could top our quarterly earnings estimate Tuesday.

Investors should also note that Best Buy has come in above our quarterly earnings estimates in five out of the last six quarters.

Best Buy is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results before the market opens on Tuesday, August 28.

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