Best Buy Battered After Miss

Updated from 11:53 a.m. EDT

Trust us on this.

That was the message from Best Buy(BBY) executives to analysts Tuesday following a rare earnings miss from the electronics retailer.

Best Buy shares were falling $2.45, or 5.1%, to $45.56 in recent trading after the first-quarter stumble. The company said a shift toward sales of lower-margin products weighed on the bottom line, and it lowered its profit outlook for the year amid uncertainty about consumer spending.

While expressing disappointment with the results, Best Buy executives maintained that it is on the right track, and pointed to gains in market share, customer loyalty and strong international sales as evidence of a successful long-term strategy.

For the quarter ended June 2, the Minneapolis-based consumer-electronics giant posted earnings of $192 million, or 39 cents a share, down from $234 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial projected earnings of 49 cents a share for the latest quarter.

"We're proud of our track record of earnings growth over the last 10 years," Brad Anderson, vice chairman and CEO, told analysts during a conference call, "so missing as we've done in this quarter is not taken lightly by this organization."

Sales managed to top Wall Street's expectation, rising 14% to $7.93 billion. Analysts, on average, predicted sales of $7.85 billion.

But while sales were strong, the bottom line was hit by a decline in margins. Best Buy's gross profit rate for the first quarter was 23.9% of revenue, down from 25.4% the prior year.

To watch Rob Lenihan's video take of this column, click here.