Has consumer electronics giant and Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) become that boring of a company that quickly? Seems that way. Yesterday morning's news that the company would boost its dividend payout and buyback program had little impact on its shares in Thursday's trading. The stock rose less than 2% on lower-than-usual trading volume.
I guess that's the way of things when you're at the top of the game. A company like Roxio (NASDAQ:ROXI) can see its market value jump nearly 24% in one day on news of an electronic music partnership with Best Buy -- not to mention a $10-million equity investment from that same retailer -- while the retailer itself registers nary a blip.
More important to Best Buy investors will be news that the company will boost its dividend from $0.10 to $0.11 per share, effective when it next pays out in October, and increase its stock buyback program to $500 million from $400 million, $282 million of which has already been repurchased. (The company began paying a dividend late last year.)
But in the end, these events have little to say about the strength of the company's business. They're more a reflection of it. We saw it not long ago in Best Buy's fiscal Q1 earnings report, which showed us a company that is still a high performer despite impressive sustained growth and persistent competition from Circuit City (NYSE:CC), discounters like Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT), and specialty chains like Ultimate Electronics (NASDAQ:ULTE) and others.
Best Buy's position is well defined -- which is no doubt why good news like yesterday's announcement get a "ho-hum" reaction from investors. Sometimes that's a good thing.
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Fool contributor Dave Marino-Nachison doesn't own any of the companies in this story.
