Best Buy Company, Inc
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Best Buy Company, Inc. NYSE: BBY Consumer Discretionary: Services: Retail (Technology) 1,000 Shares | Current Price: $30.18 | Impact: $30,180 Bond Rating: BBB- BUY Recommendation April 14th, 2003 Best Buy is a good buy for us! · Well Positioned: In the hopes of a recovering economy and potential post -war economic boost, Best Buy is positioned to capitalize on expected prosperity far better than any of it’s competitors. It’s real-estate exposure, solid reputation, and evolving product line have placed it in a position to outperform the closest competition. Analysts: Brian Busby: 469.951.9231 · Shifting Product Sales Mix: [email protected] Recognizing the change in their retail environment from low-margin Scott Krouse: CD’s and movies to higher-margin digital products, Best Buy is ahead of 214.563.7045 the pack in redesigning it’s stores and sales focus. With the inevitable [email protected] growth and built in obsolescence of products like HDTV, computer hardware and software, digital camcorders, and cellular technology, Best Buy is a company that is set to prosper in the near future. Share Price (04/10/03) $30.18 · People will buy TV’s again: 52 week range $16.99 - $53.15 Best Buy’s product mix includes relatively inexpensive discretionary products. When the market does begin to recover, whether it be soon or Key Numbers & Ratios: in a year, these are the first products that people will resume buying. BBY Industry Best Buy’s beta of 2.19 indicates that when times do improve this Shares Outstanding 321.73 company will benefit two-fold. Market Cap. (mill) 9,709.66 Beta 2.19 1.86 COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Best Buy Company, Inc. is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal Earnings: computers, entertainment software and appliances. The Company operates retail stores EPS (FY 2002) $1.83 and commercial Websites under the brand names Best Buy, Media Play, On Cue, Sam EPS (FY 2003 est.) $2.12 Goody, Suncoast, Magnolia Hi-Fi and Future Shop. The Company operates three 1yr growth rate (%) 15.00 4.60 segments: Best Buy, Musicland and International. Best Buy is primarily a specialty 5yr growth rate (%) 17.60 15.00 retailer of consumer electronics, home office equipment, entertainment software and appliances. Also included in the Best Buy segment is Seattle-based Magnolia Hi-Fi, a high-end retailer of audio and video products. The Musicland segment is primarily a Valuation: mall-based retailer of movies, prerecorded music, video games and other entertainment- Price/Book 3.92 3.53 related products. The International segment consists of Future Shop, a specialty retailer Price/Sales 0.44 0.54 of consumer electronics, home office equipment, entertainment software and appliances P/E Ratio 16.49 16.08 with operations in Canada. PEG 0.94 1.07 Source: WSJ.com Operations: ROA (TTM) 8.13 8.14 ROE (TTM) 24.34 24.07 ROI (TTM) 16.83 15.20 Inventory Turnover 5.92 4.90 Financial Strength: Current Ratio 1.30 1.56 Debt/Equity 0.30 0.40 Sources: WSJ.com, Multex Corporate Profile · Best Buy/BestBuy.com/Best Buy Canada. The largest volume specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances, Best Buy Co., Inc. is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Best Buy currently operates retail stores in almost every state and is on track to have more than 550 stores nationwide by 2004. Its online services are supported by over 350 distribution centers throughout the U.S. Best Buy stores in Canada are a division of Best Buy Canada Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc. · Magnolia Hi-Fi. Magnolia Hi-Fi is a high-end electronic entertainment retailer. Currently there are 16 stores and the subsidiary has just entered the California market. Its focus is on distributed audio and/or video, custom-designed and - installed home theaters and corporate boardroom/presentation facilities. · Future Shop. Future Shop had become Canada's largest electronics retailer. It is similar in nature to the American Best Buys in its product lines and services. With more than 100 stores, Future Shop can be found throughout the country and in fiscal 2001 annual sales surpassed $2 billion. · Musicland. Musicland Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc. Musicland is a specialty retailer of home entertainment software products. The company currently operates more than 1,300 stores under three names - Sam Goody, Suncoast Motion Picture Company , and Media Play - in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Sources: BestBuy.com, Magnolia Hi-Fi, Future Shop, Musicland Source: Best Buy 2002 Annual Report Richard Schulze along with his business partner founded Sound of Music in 1966. In 1971, Schulze bought out his partner and began to expand the chain. The 80’s changed his focus from a young, male client to a more affluent clientele. The year 1983 brought about a change in the name of the company to the current name, “Best Buy”. Furthermore, the company changed that year into a retail chain focused around wide selection and low prices. Best Buy went public in 1985 and the company continued to expand in the 80’s to more than 40 stores. Schulze then changed the concept of the store to more of warehouse store format that helped to drive many of Best Buy’s competition out of business. The early to mid-90’s proved difficult for the company as the store format was expanded and the company found itself in trouble. 1997 was the year the company realized it had overextended itself with expansions, super-sized stores, and financing promotions. As the 90’s ended, Best Buy formed a separate subsidiary for its online services. The company also began to focus more on digital products and feature stations for computer software. Magnolia Hi-Fi was acquired in 2000 for $87 million and in 2001 Best Buy acquired the Musicland Group for about $377 million. The last acquisition Best Buy made was Future Shop, the leading electronics retailer in Canada. In June 2002 Schulze turned over his responsibilities as CEO to vice chairman Brad Anderson; Schulze remains as chairman of the board. In January 2003 Best Buy closed down nearly 110 Musicland stores (90 Sam Goody music stores and 20 Suncoast video stores) and laid off about 700 employees. Sources: Hoovers, Best Buy Strategies for a new Marketplace: Best Buy used to be known for competitive pricing on their CD’s. Times have changed and so has the market for this type of product. CD’s are no longer a way to make little or any profit. Nowadays the largest gainers in the sales mix are phones, cameras, gaming, printers and laptops. The decliners in sales have been computers, CD’s, appliances, and network software. This is why the strategy of Best Buy has changed in the past year. The company now plans to focus more of its sales efforts on high-end, state of the art electronics products - which provide a higher margin and are growing at a steady clip . Despite it’s rapid expansion over the past decade, there remains extensive growth potential for the corporation. Best Buy plans to open 40 new domestic retail stores in 2003, 20 new stores in Canada within the next four years, and 80+ new Best Buy stores in 2004. Furthermore, many of their older stores are under renovation to reflect the new company focus on digital products. The vision of the company is to have 1,000+ superstores in North America. More growth is predicted as the company keeps its highly-loyal customers and continues to create innovative store environments. With the growth in digital products still increasing, Best Buy intends to stay as the market leader in this field. The Sell-Off: With same store comparables down 13% from last year, the Musicland division of Best Buy is faced with a problematic dilemma in the future. Ever since Best Buy purchased the company in 2001, sales have slumped. Although the comparables are better than expected, the numbers are still not healthy. CD comparables declined by double digits in 2002. With Sam Goody’s focus on such a poor concept, the company has decided to sell the Musicland division of Best Buy. Best Buy can then re-focus its efforts on its successful core business. Strategic Priorities for the Future : · Customer drive. Best Buy plans to leverage customer information more efficiently. Since today’s shopper is a more demanding customer than in the past, the company will offer more in-store experiences that the customer wants. It also looks to differentiate and coordinate brands more effectively. · Efficient Enterprise. With the focus back on its core business, the company plans to re-deploy a portion of its savings to support customer centricity efforts. It plans to cut some of the back-of-house expenses in hopes of lowering its SG&A rates. · Win the Home with Service. Like many customer-oriented corporations nowadays, the trend is shifting back to service. Best Buy plans to lead the market for home lifestyle-based solutions by creating a service “brand.” · Win Entertainment. Through its new and expanded partnerships with AOL and Earthlink ISP, Best Buy plans to become the market maker for entertainment through its partnerships. It also wants to create new services relating to this high growing field. Additionally, optimizing the role of entertainment will help drive customer traffic. Source: Best Buy Industry Evaluation & Sector Outlook The electronics retail industry is a large and varied sector in the marketplace. Before looking at the more specific market of electronics, the consumer sector must be examined as a whole.