Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) shares moved higher on Tuesday after the retailer delivered a better-than-expected profit performance.

Investors focused on margin stability and operational improvement despite softer overall sales trends.

Also, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said a recent Supreme Court ruling has lowered the company's effective tariff rate on its products for now. Barry made the comments during the company's conference call.

Quarterly Metrics

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.61, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $2.47. Quarterly sales of $13.814 billion missed the Street view of $13.877 billion.

Quarterly gross profit totaled $2.882 billion, lower than $2.918 billion a year ago. Gross margin remained flat year over year to 20.9%.

Operating income jumped to $721 million from $217 million a year ago, with operating margins expanding to 5.2% from 1.6%.

Segment Details

Enterprise revenue edged down to $13.814 billion in the fourth quarter from $13.948 billion in the year-ago period.

Domestic segment revenue slipped to $12.575 billion from $12.715 billion a year earlier. Domestic gross profit rate of 20.9% was approximately flat to last year. 

International segment revenue rose slightly to $1.239 billion in the fourth quarter from $1.233 billion in the year-ago period. International gross profit rate was 20.5% versus 21.4% last year.

“Our comparable sales, while within our guidance range, declined 0.8% compared to last year,” said Barry. “Our data sources show our overall market share was at least flat, pointing to slightly softer customer demand for our industry during the holiday quarter.”

“We also launched and scaled our U.S. digital Marketplace, drastically increasing our available product count for our customers, and grew Best Buy Ads, almost doubling the number of ad partners compared to the prior year,” Barry added. 

Best Buy exited the quarter with cash and equivalents worth $1.738 billion.

Dividend

The company announced its board of directors approved a 1% increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend to 96 cents per common share. The regular quarterly dividend is payable on April 14.

Outlook

The company expects to spend approximately $300 million on share repurchases during FY27.

BBY Price Action: Best Buy Co shares were up 8.47% at $66.80 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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