Circuit City (NYSE:CC) is finally starting to get it.
The consumer electronics retailer has evolved into a market darling in recent years, and this morning's healthy quarterly report isn't going to put an end to the infatuation. The company wrapped up what is a seasonally sleepy August quarter with an 11% uptick in sales to $2.8 billion. Earnings from continuing operations climbed to $0.07 a share. That was comfortably ahead of the $0.02 per share it had earned a year earlier or the $0.05 a stub that dreamy-eyed analysts were banking on.
The report comes on the heels of rival Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) soaring 16% higher last week after posting better-than-expected results on the strength of LCD television and laptop sales. Those were the same two drivers behind Circuit City's retailing success, more than offsetting dips in DVDs, camcorders, and desktop computers.
Circuit City was already coming off a strong fiscal first-quarter showing three months ago. The good times continue, as the company scored an impressive 8.3% spurt in comps at the store level and a buoyant 74% top-line improvement at its online store.
It's been a wild ride of debunking for Circuit City. Three years ago, skeptics thought the company was nuts for rebuffing an $8-per-share buyout offer while its stock was trading in the mid-single digits. As Circuit City muscled its way into the teens, it attracted another proposal last year, when Highfields Capital Management offered to take the consumer electronics chain private at $17 a stub. Circuit City opted to stay single, and that has proven to be another smart move, since its shares are now in the mid-$20s.
It's not fair to say that Circuit City is simply riding Best Buy's coattails at the moment. The recent struggles at small box RadioShack (NYSE:RSH) prove that a rising tide doesn't lift all electronics-retailing boats. Even though Best Buy and Circuit City find their shares trading higher this year, the same can't be said for smaller competitors like Conn's (NASDAQ:CONN), Rex (NYSE:RSC), and Tweeter (NASDAQ:TWTR).
So congrats on the stardom, Circuit City. Well done, too, on smacking down the suitors who wanted to snap you up before you had a chance to blossom.
Best Buy is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz prefers shopping at Best Buy to Circuit City, though he remains a fan of Best Buy blue and Circuit City red. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. T he Fool has a disclosure policy.
