Why Best Buy's Shares Shorted Out, Then Recovered

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of embattled electronics retailer Best Buy (NYS: BBY) were looking like a best sell for much of the day; shares were down as much as 11% before recovering all the way to even.

So what: The woes continue for Best Buy. The latest disappointment was the company's second-quarter-earnings report. Thanks to store closures and other one-time costs, profit fell 90% for the quarter. Performance on an operating basis was better, but not by much, as operating income fell 52%. On the top line, a 3.2% decline in same-store sales drove a 3% drop in revenue.

Sufficiently depressed yet? There's more. Best Buy also suspended its full-year forecast and halted share buybacks. And all of this follows the company's hiring of new CEO Hubert Joly, which dimmed investors' hopes that it would cozy up to founder Richard Schulze's buyout hopes.

Now what: What's there really to take away here? Best Buy is struggling -- and struggling badly. If you ask this Fool, the woes of Best Buy reflect the thin competitive moat that the retailer had. Without any particularly compelling reason to shop at Best Buy stores, shoppers happily head to Wal-Mart (NYS: WMT) or log onto Amazon (NAS: AMZN) to score a lower price.

Could Joly, who has little in the way of retail experience, turn around Best Buy? It's possible, but he's going to have to lead a serious corporate soul-searching effort to help it figure out what the heck it can offer to customers that its competitors don't or can't. And I'll give you a hint: The answer ain't lower prices.

Of course, in light of all of this, you might ask why the stock recovered its losses today. What seems most likely is that investors see the poor performance of the recent quarter as nudging the door open a bit further for a Schulze takeover and a near-term push for the stock.

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The article Why Best Buy's Shares Shorted Out, Then Recovered originally appeared on Fool.com.

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