Best Buy Co., the nation's biggest consumer electronics retailer, said Tuesday its third-quarter profit jumped 52 percent, boosted by holiday shopping and sales of higher-ticket items such as flat-panel TVs. The results beat Wall Street expectations and the company boosted its outlook for the year. Its shares rose more than 2 percent in premarket trading.
Profit for the quarter ended Dec. 1 rose to $228 million, or 53 cents per share, from $150 million, or 31 cents per share in the prior-year period. Revenue rose 17 percent to $9.93 billion, from $8.47 billion last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial predicted a profit of 41 cents per share on revenue of $9.44 billion. The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.
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