Shares of Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) fell over 3% on Wednesday. The stock has dropped 17% over the past 12 months. The consumer electronics retailer delivered sales and earnings growth for its most recent quarter and remains optimistic about its performance for the fiscal year. In addition, it continues to make progress on its growth strategy.
Q3 performance
Best Buy generated revenue of $9.7 billion in the third quarter of 2026, which was up 2.4% from the prior-year period. Enterprise comparable sales grew 2.7%. Earnings per share, on an adjusted basis, increased 11% year-over-year to $1.40.
Growth initiatives
Best Buy continues to operate in an environment where customers remain contemplative about big purchases and more inclined towards deals, but willing to spend when necessary and especially when there is technology innovation. On that note, the company continues to see strong growth in categories like computing, mobile phones, and gaming as consumers keep upgrading and replacing products.
In Q3, BBY delivered its seventh consecutive quarter of positive comps in computing. It also saw a 30% YoY growth in desktop computers led by the transition to the Windows 11 operating system. In gaming, the company saw healthy demand for handheld gaming and augmented reality glasses. It also saw strong sales growth in mobile phones. The retailer expects growth in these categories to continue in the fourth quarter of 2026.
As part of its growth initiatives, Best Buy is working to drive its omnichannel and digital capabilities. The company is working on refreshing and upgrading its stores to deliver new products and experiences. The usage of its mobile app continues to increase and it is working on improving the online shopping experience for customers by offering better personalization, product recommendations, pricing and delivery options.
BBY is gaining good traction on its online platform Best Buy Marketplace with a wide range of products across various categories from both reputed and new sellers. It is seeing high unit sales in categories like accessories and small appliances. In Q3, Marketplace made strong progress in terms of sellers, SKUs, traffic conversion rate, and sales. The platform’s results positively impacted the gross profit rate for the quarter. This momentum is expected to continue in Q4 2026. The platform is also opening up opportunities for advertising.
Best Buy is leveraging AI capabilities across various areas of its business such as product search, product recommendations and customer support, with plans to expand to areas like personalized marketing and scam detection.
Outlook
For fiscal year 2026, Best Buy expects revenue of $41.65-41.95 billion. Comparable sales growth is expected to be 0.5% to 1.2%. Adjusted EPS is expected to be $6.25-6.35.
