Best Buy posts modest sales gain

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Best Buy on Friday reported a modest increase of 1.5 percent in December sales after continuing declines in sales of MP3 players and projection TVs more than offset sales increases of flat-screen TVs.

Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500), the No. 1 electronics seller, said U.S. sales at stores open at least a year - a key measure of retail performance known as same-store sales - rose just 0.3 percent last month. Same-store sales at its international operations saw a better 7.6 percent increase.

However, total sales in December rose 11 percent to $7.3 billion.

The retailer said video gaming, flat-panel TVs, notebook computers and GPS devices were the best-performing categories last month.

Consumer electronics posted a 3.1-percent same-store sales decline, which the company blamed on falling sales of projection and tube, or box, TVs and MP3 players.

Best Buy said flat-screen TV sales rose in the low double-digits. Elsewhere, entertainment software posted an 8.2 percent same-store sales gain, appliance sales rose 1.8 percent and home office products registered a 4.7 percent sales increase.

Earlier this month, the company cautioned that a shift in the 2007 sales reporting calendar, which gave retailers an extra week in November versus last year, helped boost its sales in November but would constrain same-store gains in December.

Given that December is its largest earnings month of the year, Best Buy's warning rattled investors even after it raised its full-year profit guidance.

Adjusted for the calendar shift, December sales would have increased by 3 percent, the company said.

Best Buy also reiterated its full-year earnings guidance of between $3.10 to $3.20 a share.