Best Buy has shed 11.2% in a single week, closing at $59.11 — its lowest level in months — as consumer electronics retailers bear the brunt of renewed tariff anxiety and softening big-ticket demand.
The week's move wasn't company-specific. Close peers URBN fell 6.6%, ASO dropped 6.3%, and ANF lost 10.5% over the same stretch. SIG gave back 9.2%. The broadening of the selloff across specialty retail suggests macro pressure rather than stock-specific deterioration — but BBY's heavier exposure to imported consumer electronics makes it a natural lightning rod when tariff headlines resurface.
Short sellers have grown modestly more active this week, though the story remains far from crowded or extreme. Short interest has edged up roughly 2.6% over seven days to 8.6% of the free float — about 18.1 million shares — after falling sharply from a peak near 24% of float in mid-March. That reversal is significant: bears were covering aggressively through April 9, then paused. The past week sees them tiptoeing back in. Borrowing BBY remains cheap at 0.40%, and availability in the lending market is ample, with shares easy to source — this is not a squeeze-risk setup. The ORTEX short score of 51.4 is mid-range, reinforcing the idea that positioning looks cautious rather than aggressive.
Options traders are more worried. The put/call ratio has climbed to 1.39, above its 20-day average of 1.24 and sitting closer to the 52-week high of 1.56 than its low of 0.78. That's a clear tilt toward downside protection heading into Q1 2027 earnings on May 28. The RSI-14 of 36 is approaching oversold territory. Taken together, the options market is hedging a stock that has already fallen hard, not chasing fresh shorts — defensive positioning rather than speculative pressure.
The Street is offering little relief. The consensus is firmly "hold" with 15 of the tracked analysts neutral. Goldman Sachs remains the most prominent bull, keeping a Buy rating, but cut its target sharply from $93 to $76 back in early March following the Q4 print. Evercore ISI, the most recent mover, trimmed again on April 14 — from $75 to $65, still maintaining a neutral In-Line stance. The mean target across the group has drifted to $72.74, implying roughly 23% upside from current levels, though much of that gap reflects pre-selloff targets that haven't been refreshed since the stock started sliding. The bear case is clear: domestic comps were tracking down 2–3% in recent store checks, third-party data showed a 10% year-on-year sales decline, and management itself guided for a low-single-digit comp decline going forward. The bull case hinges on AI-upgrade cycles in computing hardware and emerging display technology lifting average selling prices — a genuine medium-term thesis but one that depends on consumer confidence holding up under tariff pressure.
On valuation, the stock is getting cheap on an earnings basis. The P/E has compressed to 8.9x, down roughly 0.75 of a multiple turn in 30 days, and the EV/EBITDA of 5.5x is modest for a company with a 6.8% forward dividend yield — the dividend score ranks in the 91st percentile of the universe. The practical question is whether those multiples are a floor or a trap: the EPS momentum score of 38 out of 100 flags that forward estimates are being revised down, not up, even as the stock cheapens.
The insider picture adds context without changing the direction. On March 23, CEO Corie Barry sold $2.7 million worth of stock at $64.02, joined by the CFO and four other senior executives selling smaller amounts on the same day. All transactions followed equity awards granted three days earlier, making them planned dispositions rather than discretionary sales — but the timing means insiders liquidated at prices roughly 8% above where the stock trades now.
The setup heading into the May 28 earnings call is clear: a stock down 11% in a week, with options markets hedging, short sellers quietly rebuilding, and a Street consensus anchored at targets well above current levels. Whether the AI upgrade thesis begins to show up in the Q1 numbers — or whether tariff-related caution keeps consumers away from big-ticket electronics — will determine whether the current discount proves justified or excessive.
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