Best Buy, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dollar Tree Q3 Results Beat View

(RTTNews) - U.S. retailers Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), and Dollar Tree Inc. (DLTR) on Tuesday reported results for the third quarter that surpassed analysts' expectations.

The upbeat results indicate that retailers have largely recovered from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic just as the holiday season approaches. The companies have also intensified their focused on digital sales to offset the impact of store closures.

The National Retail Federation also expects that holiday sales in November and December will rise between 3.6 percent and 5.2 percent from last year.

However, all the three retailers did not provide any financial outlook for the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season, the most happening period of the year for the retail industry.

Best Buy's third-quarter earnings increased to $391 million or $1.48 per share from $293 million or $1.10 per share in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings were $2.06 per share, compared to $1.13 per share in the previous year.

Revenue grew to $11.85 billion from $9.76 billion in the previous year. Comparable sales for the quarter improved 23 percent. Domestic online revenue also jumped 173.7 percent on a comparable basis.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.70 per share on revenues of $11.00 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Best Buy also said its board has authorized the payment of a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.55 per common share.

Abercrombie & Fitch reported its third-quarter net income of $42.27 million or $0.66 per share, up sharply from $6.52 million or $0.10 per share in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were $0.76 per share.

However, net sales declined 5 percent to $819.65 million from $863.47 million last year. Digital net sales grew 43 percent.

Analysts had a consensus estimate for breakeven earnings per share on revenues of $739.36 million.

Abercrombie & Fitch also announced the early exit of its four additional flagship locations by the end of January 2021. This is in addition to the three previously announced fiscal 2020 natural lease expirations.

"With these seven closures, we should end the year with eight operating flagships down from fifteen at the beginning of the year," said Fran Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer of Abercrombie & Fitch.

Dollar Tree's third-quarter profit rose to $330.0 million or $1.39 per share from $255.8 million or $1.08 per share last year. Net sales grew 7.5 percent to $6.18 billion from $5.75 billion a year ago.

The Street expected the company to report earnings of $1.15 per share on revenues of $6.12 billion.

Same-store sales for Family Dollar increased 6.4 percent, while Dollar Tree same-store sales rose 4.0 percent.

Dollar Tree said it now expects the completion of about 480 new store openings and 750 Family Dollar second-half store renovations in fiscal 2020.