BEST BUY REPORTS ANOTHER DROP IN QUARTERLY SALES AS SHOPPERS REMAIN CAUTIOUS ABOUT GADGET SPENDING

Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, reported another quarterly drop in sales as Americans pull back on purchases of appliances and other consumer electronics gadgets to focus on essentials.

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The company’s results, announced Thursday, beat Wall Street estimates, however. The Richfield, Minnesota-based retailer downgraded its sales outlook but raised its earnings view for the current fiscal year. Shares rose more than 7% Thursday.

Best Buy reported earnings of $291 million, or $1.34 per share for the three-month period ended Aug. 3. That compares with $274 million, or $1.25 per share, in the year-go period.

Sales slipped 3% to $9.29 billion from $9.58 billion in the quarter.

Analysts were expecting $1.16 per share on sales of $9.23 billion, according to FactSet.

Comparable sales — those sales from online channels and physical stores — fell 2.3%. That was a smaller decline from the 6.1% reported in the previous quarter.