(Reuters) -Best Buy Co Inc forecast fourth-quarter comparable sales below analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, as the electronics retailer braces for a hit from likely product shortages during the crucial holiday shopping season.
The company’s shares fell 9.4% to $125 in premarket trading.
Retailers are under tremendous pressure to keep shelves stocked for the holiday season as shipping logjams, shuttered factories in Asia and a scarcity of raw materials rip through global supply chains and drive product shortages.
A shortage of semiconductor chips used in electronic items has dented availability of some high-demand products, including the latest gaming consoles from Sony Corp, Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp.
Best Buy forecast fourth-quarter comparable sales between a fall of 2% and a rise of 1%, the mid point of which is below estimates of a 0.1% rise, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company’s comparable sales rose 1.6% in the third quarter, compared with estimates of a 0.3% dip.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)
