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Best Buy (BBY) Gains From Growth Strategies Amid Headwinds

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Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY - Free Report) remains focused on optimizing its store fleet, making growth investments and improving customer experiences. The company is on track to deliver fiscal 2024 store plans, including closing 20-30 large format stores and implementing eight Experience store remodels while opening around 5 additional outlet stores.

It is also making significant investments in fundamental technology capabilities, such as data and analytics, as well as cloud migration, to drive scale, efficiency and effectiveness.

Best Buy is constantly conducting various tests and pilots to become a more customer-centric, digitally focused and efficient company. In the second quarter of fiscal 2024, the company launched significant changes to its Totaltech program.

Its membership program now offers three levels: My Best Buy, My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total. My Best Buy remains BBY’s free tier plan for customers looking for convenience, including free shipping with no minimum purchase and gains connected with a member account.

The company’s My Best Buy Plus is the latest membership plan for customers looking for value and access. For $49.99 per year, customers get everything, including My Best Buy offers with exciting prices and access to product releases. Free two-day shipping with an expanded 60-day return and exchange window on the majority of products can also be availed. My Best Buy Total is a membership plan built for customers looking for protection and support. This tier is an evolution of the company’s Totaltech offer at $179.99 per year.

It also remains committed to rewarding its shareholders through share buyback programs and dividend payouts. During the fiscal second quarter, the company returned about $279 million to its shareholders via dividends of $200 million and share repurchases of $79 million.

Zacks Investment Research
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Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have lost 2.1% over the past year compared with the industry’s decline of 15.7%.

Despite the positives, Best Buy has been witnessing soft sales across several categories, including appliances, home theater, computing and mobile phones. In the fiscal second quarter, its enterprise revenues declined 7.2% year-over-year to $9,583 million. The results were hurt due to the pull-forward of demand in previous fiscal years, higher spending outside the home category in areas such as travel and entertainment and macroeconomic pressures like high inflation and rising interest rates.

For the balance of the fiscal year, management expects the macroeconomic environment to continue to pressure demand. Year-over-year comparable performance is anticipated to improve as the company progresses through the year. For fiscal 2024, BBY projects revenues of $43.8-$44.5 billion and a comparable sales decline of 4.5-6%.

Key Picks

We have highlighted three better-ranked stocks, namely Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - Free Report) , American Eagle Outfitters (AEO - Free Report) and Boot Barn (BOOT - Free Report) .

Abercrombie & Fitch, a leading casual apparel retailer, currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Abercrombie & Fitch’s current financial-year sales and earnings per share (EPS) suggests growth of 10.4% and 1,644%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures. ANF delivered an earnings surprise of 724.8% in the last reported quarter.

American Eagle Outfitters, a retailer of casual apparel, accessories and footwear, currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. AEO delivered an earnings surprise of 43.2% in the last reported quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for American Eagle Outfitters’ current financial-year sales and EPS suggests growth of 1.3% and 24.7%, respectively, from the year-ago reported figures.

Boot Barn, a fashion retailer of apparel and accessories, currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 13.5%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Boot Barn’s current financial-year sales suggests growth of 7.8% from the year-ago reported figure.

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