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Posted: Tue 13:09, 03 Sep 2013 Post subject: Can Best Buy Stock Live Up To Its Name-spun5 |
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Can Best to buy Stock Live Up To Its Name
retailer of consumer electronics,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with roughly 19% from the domestic and 5% of the global market. Internationally, Best Buy has a couple of,400 smaller locations in Europe, 300 locations in Canada (such as the Future Shop brand), and 200 stores in China (mainly the Five Star brand). Best Buy's product categories are: electronic devices (TVs, digital camera models,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], etc. - about 31% of sales), computing and cell phones (laptops, desktops, smartphones,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], tablets, etc. - 46%), entertainment (gaming consoles, video games, movies and music - 8%), appliances (about 8%),[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and services (7%).
Once a fast-growing and highly praised retailer, Best to buy has fallen on hard times. retail market. While this appears like a tailwind, the truth is that it has attracted a lot of competition. General retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST) expanded their electronics offerings and have pushed aggressive discounts to drive store traffic.
However the bigger blow continues to be the popularity towards buying electronics and entertainment online. During the "Black Friday" weekend this season, consumer electronics were the 4th fastest growing online product category, up 17% from last year. Directly behind it had been video game consoles, up 16%. The #1 grower,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], digital content and subscriptions (up 25%), also hurts Best Buy because it represents people purchasing digitally-delivered movies, music, and video games, instead of the physical Blu-ray and game console disks sold in Best Buy's stores. In fact, gifs entertainment increased to 31% of category spend last year, up from 20% last year, and it is forecast to include another several percentage points in 2012. To put it simply,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], trends are moving quickly away from Best Buy's business design.
These trends are plainly visible within the results. Last quarter,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Best Buy reported a 18% drop in entertainment sales, and also a 10% drop in consumer electronics. Overall, the company reported another 4% decline in same-store sales, and without taking out any costs, operating profit declined to some minuscule 0.4% of sales, when compared to company's historical 4.5-5% margin.
There are two things to consider when analyzing Best to buy as a potential Magic Formula (MFI) investment. One, what's Best to buy worth being an ongoing company? And 2, will founder Richard Schultze make good on his offer to accept company private, therefore, what is a likely buyout timing and value?
Let's tackle the first question. I am not so worried about the general retailers. In fact, Walmart has begun to reduce electronics space. Online sales, though, really are a bigger concern. To combat these, Best Buy has outlined several initiatives,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], including a 10% reduction in store footage,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], an increased focus on mobile devices and salesman knowledge, $400 million inSG cost reductions, and capturing much more of e-commerce spend. The final the first is particularly significant. Best to buy has already been the world's 11th largest online retailer,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and has some advantages with special financing offers and in-store pickup.
In my opinion the organization is concentrating on the best things and can eventually (over a few years) right the ship on margins. However,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], entertainment is a lost cause here - the company cannot contend with Netflix (NFLX), or Amazon (AMZN), or Apple (AAPL) in this space. Overall, I see about an 8% annualized decline in operating income over the next 5 years. This,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], combined with already-suspended share buybacks along with a likely-to-be suspended dividend, makes the ongoing value of the stock about $15,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in my opinion.
Now, how about founder Richard Schultze's ongoing takeover saga? Schulze already owns about 20% of the company, and in August agreed with the company to present a takeover bid expected to be worth $24-26 per share. It had been extended once, after which extended again last Friday. Only a day before,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], reports emerged that Schulze was prepared to bid $15-18! Now, it's unlikely that any action on the bid can come before late February.
So, what is going on here? Schulze clearly doesn't need more time for research - hefounded Best to buy in 1966, was its CEO until 2002, and sat as chairman until stepping down in June of the year. It seems to me that certain of a couple of things are delaying this bid. One is that his financial backers - reportedly TPG Capital, Leonard Green Partners, and Cerberus Capital - are becoming cold feet thinking about the firm's poor recent performance. Another is that those partners might want to watch for an even better price if fourth quarter answers are similarly poor. After all, the expected takeover bid was already trimmed nearly in half since August!
Frankly, I'm worried that it's more of the former compared to latter. For just one, I believe Best Buy is likely nearing its operational nadir. 2012 was filled with management and board turmoil, which probably slowed down operational action to enhance results. With things calming down and turnaround specialist Hubert Joly now in charge, I think the numbers should start stabilizing. It may have been in the best interests from the private equity to firms to strike while the stock is affordable.
Given this, I'm more inclined to go with $15 like a reasonable valuation for Best Buy. While that represents a decent 30% upside, I am not real excited about it being one of the best MFI picks at present, because of the risks. We'll slap a tentative "positive" outlook on the stock,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but it's not Top Buy material.
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