Best Buy ups sales outlook heading into holiday shopping ramp-up

Best Buy raised its profit and sales expectations ahead of the holiday shopping ramp-up on Black Friday after a strong third quarter.

Comparable-store sales at the nation's largest consumer electronics chain rose 2.7%, fueled by computing, gaming and mobile phones. It was the biggest gain in four years for the Minnesota retailer.

Shares rose nearly 6% in early afternoon trading.

Best Buy's CEO Corie Barry told reporters on a call Tuesday that the chain is making sure that it has a broad range of products across all price points. That breadth of assortment has helped the chain pick up more lower income shoppers, she said.

“The consumer is not a monolith,” Barry told reporters. “Generally, what we are seeing (is) a generally resilient consumer. They are deal-focused, so definitely looking for those predictable sales events."

But Barry said that doesn't mean shoppers are looking for the lowest prices but rather ones that offer the best value.

“And they’re willing to spend when they need to or when there’s innovation,” she said.

The strong quarter is an encouraging sign for Best Buy, which like almost all U.S. companies, has spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment as President Donald Trump imposes wide-ranging tariffs on imports. The electronics industry can be particularly hard hit by tariffs because so many good are imported.

Consumer sentiment has sagged and the just ended 43-day federal shutdown did not help.

Shoppers seemingly continue to spend, though there are broad signs that they have grown more cautious and often are lured only by discounts.

Inflation is still stubborn, yet the consumer impact is not as bad as originally feared because Best Buy and other retailers have absorbed some of those increases. They have also diversified supply networks to dodge tariffs. And so price increases have only been applied to a small amount of products, Best Buy executives said.

Barry told reporters that many shoppers are buying gadgets like computers to replace their older ones, or they're looking for innovative products like getting their hands on new gaming consoles.

Barry estimates that the top 40% of all U.S. consumers are driving two-thirds of all consumption, but while the remaining 60% of U.S. consumers are spending less freely, it's not “dire" because the job market has held up. This group is focusing on need or getting the best deals, she said.

“One of the things we’re watching closely is how does employment continue to evolve for particularly that cohort of people who are living more paycheck to paycheck,” she added.

Best Buy reported net income of $140 million, or 66 cents per share, for the three-month period ended Nov. 1, or $1.40 when adjusted for one-time charges and benefits.

That was 9 cents better than Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by FactSet, though far below last year's $273 million, or $1.26 per share.

Sales rose to $9.67 billion from $9.45 billion, also beating expectations.

The company raised its earnings per share forecast for the current year to between $6.25 and $6.35 per share. That's up from the previous range of between $6.15 and $6.30 per share.

It also now expects sales of $41.65 billion to $41.95 billion for the year, up from its original forecast of $41.1 billion to $41.9 billion.

Best Buy also forecasts that comparable sales will be up anywhere from 0.5% to 1.2% for the year. Its earlier forecast called for a 1% decline to an increase of 1%.

FILE - A Best Buy logo is shown at a store in Dallas on Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk's space exploration company has filed preliminary paperwork to sell shares to the public, according to two sources familiar with the filing, a blockbuster offering that would likely rank as the biggest ever and could make its founder the world's first trillionaire.

A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year, with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk's ambitions to set up a base on the moon, put datacenters the size of several football fields in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the confidential registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SpaceX did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Exactly how much SpaceX plans to raise has not been disclosed but the figure is reportedly as much as $75 billion. At that level, the offering would easily eclipse the $29 billion that Saudi Aramco raised in its IPO in 2019.

The offering, coming possibly in June, could value all the shares of SpaceX at $1.5 trillion, nearly double what the company was valued in December when some minority owners sold their stakes, according to research firm Pitchbook, before an acquisition that increased its size.

Musk owns 42% of the SpaceX now, according to Pitchbook, though that figure will change with the IPO when new owners are issued shares. In any case, he is likely to pierce the trillion dollar mark because he is already close. Forbes magazine estimates Musk's net worth at roughly $823 billion.

In addition to making reusable rockets to hurl astronauts and hardware into orbit, SpaceX owns Starlink, the world’s largest satellite communications company. The company also recently brought under its roof two other Musk businesses, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and artificial intelligence business, xAI, in a controversial transaction because both the seller and the buyer were controlled by him.

SpaceX has become the biggest commercial launch company in its industry, responsible for sending payloads into orbit for customers across the globe, but has also benefited from big taxpayer spending. That has raised conflicts of interest issues given that Musk was the biggest donor to President Donald Trump's campaign and is still a big backer.

In the past five years, SpaceX won $6 billion in contracts from NASA, the Defense Department and other U.S. government agencies, according to USAspending.gov.

Among current SpaceX owners is Donald Trump Jr, the president's oldest son. He owns a shares through 1789 Capital. That venture capital firm made him a partner shortly after his father won the presidency for a second time and has been buying up federal contractors seeking to win taxpayer money ever since.

The White House and Trump himself have repeatedly denied there are any conflicts of interest between his role as president and his family's businesses.

FILE - A Falcon 9 SpaceX heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

FILE - Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)