Best Buy Beats on Every Number, Raises Guidance, and Its Stock Still Fell 4-7%

Best Buy just posted one of its best quarters in years. Wall Street shrugged and sold the stock.

The numbers aren't close. Best Buy reported fiscal second-quarter comparable sales growth of 4.1%, according to CNBC, blowing past the company's own prior guidance of roughly 1% and crushing the Wall Street consensus estimate of 1.6% cited by Yahoo Finance. Revenue came in at $9.78 billion, up 3.6% from $9.44 billion a year earlier, beating the $9.54 billion analysts expected, according to Investors Hub (ADVFN).

Adjusted earnings per share hit $1.47, topping the $1.35 consensus estimate by 12 cents, Investors Hub reported. AlphaStreet put the beat even higher, saying Best Buy topped the $1.24 forecast by 18.5%. Net income for the quarter ended Aug. 1 was $315 million, up from $186 million a year ago, CNBC reported.

Then the company raised its full-year outlook. Best Buy now expects fiscal 2027 revenue between $42.3 billion and $42.8 billion, up from its prior range of $41.2 billion to $42.1 billion, according to CNBC and confirmed across every source. Full-year comparable sales guidance jumped to a range of 1.9% to 3% growth, a dramatic swing from the previous forecast of a 1% decline to a 1% increase. Adjusted EPS guidance rose to $6.70-$6.90, up from $6.30-$6.60.

Shares fell anyway, dropping between roughly 4% and 7% depending on the point in the trading session, according to CNBC, Yahoo Finance, and Investors Hub. AlphaStreet's Thursday morning snapshot had the stock at $83.67, down 4.2%.

Why the stock fell on a beat

Investors Hub laid out the likely reason: investors focused on operating expenses and margins, not the top-line beat. Best Buy's adjusted operating income rate came in at 4.3%, which Investors Hub said landed below some investor expectations, driven by higher compensation costs and continued investment in the company's Marketplace and Best Buy Ads initiatives.

There's also the memory chip problem. Yahoo Finance reported that due to higher memory costs, Best Buy raised computing prices by a mid-teens percentage, and unit sales in that category declined by high single digits even as dollar sales rose. Incoming CEO Jason Bonfig told Yahoo Finance that computing "experienced the greatest impacts from the memory crunch," followed by graphics cards, computer memory itself, and phones.

Higher prices padding revenue while unit volumes shrink isn't the same story as genuine demand growth, and investors pricing in that distinction isn't irrational. BigGo Finance noted computing was still the largest weighted driver of comparable sales and marked its tenth straight quarter of positive comps, so the category isn't collapsing. But the mix of price hikes and falling units is a legitimate reason for caution, not just a headline miss.

Best Buy did disclose a $34 million benefit from tariff refunds in the quarter, contributing to the gross profit rate, CNBC reported. Current CEO Corie Barry told CNBC the company was being deliberately transparent about that number "so that everyone can easily do the math and understand what those quantities are and still understand the strength of the base business even without those tariff refunds."

A leadership handoff, and one confused report in the mix

This was Barry's last earnings call as CEO. Bonfig takes over Nov. 1, according to CNBC and BigGo Finance, though Yahoo Finance reported the date as Oct. 31, a discrepancy between the two outlets that isn't resolved in the sourcing.

Bonfig told CNBC that customer behavior "has instead been very consistent quarter over quarter," and told Yahoo Finance that shoppers are "very thoughtful about higher-end purchases" and mostly buying "when something breaks or they just absolutely need to upgrade." He pointed to newer categories—AI glasses, Pokémon trading cards, health rings—as areas where sales more than doubled compared to last year, per BigGo Finance, though from a small base.

One outlet in this mix, Breitbart, published a report describing a "third quarter" with $9.67 billion in sales, 2.7% comparable sales growth, net income of $140 million, and a stock that rose nearly 3% before the opening bell. Those figures and narrative don't match any of the fiscal second-quarter results reported by CNBC, Yahoo Finance, BigGo Finance, AlphaStreet, or Investors Hub for the quarter ended Aug. 1. The report describes a different, later reporting period and does not reflect Thursday's results.

Wall Street's own read on Best Buy remains split. AlphaStreet reported analyst consensus sits at 4 buy ratings, 21 hold, and just 1 sell—a distribution that suggests most analysts see the stock as roughly fairly valued even after a quarter this strong. Whether Bonfig's plans for smaller-format stores and AI-driven operations can turn that "hold" consensus into something more bullish will be the question heading into his Nov. 1 start date and the holiday shopping season that follows.