Best Buy Raises FY27 Outlook After 4.1% Comparable-Sales Growth

MINNEAPOLIS, UNITED STATES — Best Buy raised its full-year sales and profit forecasts after second-quarter comparable sales increased 4.1%, with computing, home theater and emerging

 technology categories driving growth.

Best Buy increased its fiscal 2027 financial outlook Thursday after quarterly revenue rose to $9.78 billion and adjusted earnings increased, extending a recovery in demand across much of the consumer-electronics retailer's business.

The company now expects full-year comparable sales to grow between 1.9% and 3.0%, a substantial improvement from its previous forecast ranging from a 1% decline to 1% growth. Adjusted diluted earnings are projected at $6.70 to $6.90 per share, up from the earlier $6.30-to-$6.60 range.

The revision follows a first half in which Best Buy's results exceeded its earlier assumptions.

The retailer said second-quarter enterprise comparable sales increased 4.1%, compared with 1.6% growth in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue for the 13 weeks ended Aug. 1 reached $9.779 billion, up from $9.438 billion in the corresponding fiscal 2026 quarter.

Diluted earnings reached $1.48 per share, compared with $0.87 a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, earnings increased 15% to $1.47 per share from $1.28. The adjusted operating-income rate rose to 4.3% from 3.9%.

Computers, home theater and emerging products lift U.S. sales

Best Buy's domestic business accounted for most of the improvement. Domestic revenue increased 4.3% to $9.07 billion, while comparable sales rose 4.5%.

Computing and home theater were the largest established product categories contributing to comparable-sales growth on a weighted basis. Best Buy also identified a group of emerging categories — including AI glasses and trading cards — among the quarter's principal growth drivers. Traditional gaming was an offset, recording a decline.

Online sales also advanced. Domestic online revenue reached $3.00 billion and increased 5.1% on a comparable basis. Ecommerce represented 33.1% of domestic revenue, compared with 32.8% a year earlier.

The international segment moved in the opposite direction. International revenue declined to $709 million from $740 million, while comparable sales decreased 1.8%.

The results reinforce Best Buy's effort to combine its traditional electronics-retailing operation with businesses that can produce revenue outside conventional product margins. Chief Executive Corie Barry said Best Buy Ads and its Marketplace continued to perform strongly during the quarter.

That strategy predates Thursday's earnings report. In May, Best Buy described Ads and Marketplace as new profit streams it expected to provide increasing benefits over time. Incoming CEO Jason Bonfig has separately made development of Best Buy as a retail, media, advertising and technology company one of four priorities for the business.

Tariff refunds contributed to higher domestic margin

The quarter also contained a material benefit that was not generated by underlying retail sales.

Best Buy said its domestic gross-profit rate increased to 24.0% from 23.4%. Growth in Marketplace and Best Buy Ads helped that improvement, but the company also recorded approximately $34 million in refunds associated with tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Lower product margin rates partly offset those gains.

That distinction helps explain why the stronger earnings and upgraded outlook did not translate directly into a positive stock-market reaction.

Reuters reported that Best Buy shares fell about 4.5% following the results as investors weighed the tariff-refund contribution and the durability of the retailer's recent improvement after a substantial rise in its share price earlier in the year.

The company's own figures nevertheless show that the improvement extended beyond the tariff item: enterprise comparable sales rose 4.1%, domestic comparable sales increased 4.5%, and online comparable sales gained 5.1%.

Raised guidance marks a sharp change from Best Buy's May outlook

The scale of Best Buy's forecast revision becomes clearer when compared directly with the guidance it maintained after the first quarter.

In May, the company was still projecting fiscal 2027 revenue of $41.2 billion to $42.1 billion, comparable-sales performance between a 1% decline and 1% growth, an adjusted operating-income rate of 4.3% to 4.4%, and adjusted earnings of $6.30 to $6.60 per share.

Best Buy now forecasts revenue of $42.3 billion to $42.8 billion. Its adjusted operating-income-rate target has risen to 4.4% to 4.5%, while the comparable-sales and adjusted-EPS forecasts have both moved entirely above their previous ranges.

The company attributed the upgraded annual guidance to its stronger first-half performance and momentum entering the second half rather than simply to one quarter's results.

For the third quarter, however, Best Buy is forecasting a more moderate comparable-sales increase of 1% to 3%, with an adjusted operating-income rate of 4.1% to 4.2%. Those targets provide the next test of whether the current technology-upgrade cycle can continue as the company moves deeper into the fiscal year.

Best Buy enters final months of CEO transition

The upgraded outlook also arrives shortly before a scheduled change at the top of the company.

Best Buy's board selected Jason Bonfig in April to succeed Barry. Barry is scheduled to leave the CEO role and the board at the end of the third quarter on Oct. 31, with Bonfig becoming chief executive on Nov. 1. Barry is expected to remain a strategic adviser for six months afterward.

Bonfig has spent more than two decades at Best Buy and currently oversees major parts of the business, including merchandising, ecommerce, marketing, supply chain, Best Buy Canada and Best Buy Ads. He also led the creation of the company's U.S. online Marketplace and expansion of its advertising operation.

The finance organization has already changed leadership. Anne Bramman became executive vice president and chief financial officer on Aug. 19 after previously holding senior finance roles at companies including Nordstrom, Avery Dennison and Carnival Cruise Line. Best Buy said Bramman will serve on Bonfig's executive leadership team.