Circuit City's sales up 9 percent; reiterates fourth-quarter and full year profit forecasts

RICHMOND, Va. - Circuit City Stores Inc. sales increased 9 percent in the fourth quarter and reaffirmed Wednesday its earnings forecast for the quarter and for the fiscal year for its used-car business called CarMax and its electronics store chain. <br> <br> Shares of Circuit City Group stock were up 5 percent, or 93 cents, at $19.68 per share in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. <br> <br> Richmond-based Circuit City Stores Inc. divides its earnings into two tracking stocks, the Circuit City Group and CarMax Group. Earnings are applied to two different stocks under a complicated formula. <br> <br> The Circuit City stock currently includes all the earnings from the Circuit City stores and about 64 percent of the earnings from the CarMax stores. The remaining 36 percent of CarMax earnings were applied to the CarMax stock. <br> <br> The company announced plans last month to spin off its CarMax used car stores into a separate company. <br> <br> Circuit City Stores&#39; sales increased to $4.17 billion for the three months ended Feb. 28 from $3.82 billion a year ago. For the year, total sales slipped 1 percent to $12.79 billion from $12.96 billion a year ago. <br> <br> Sales applied to the Circuit City Group tracking stock increased 7 percent to $3.39 billion in the fourth quarter from $3.18 billion a year ago. Sales at stores open at least a year -- known as same-store sales -- gained 6 percent. <br> <br> For the year, total sales for the Circuit City Group declined 8 percent to $9.59 billion from $10.46 billion. Same-store sales declined 10 percent. <br> <br> Excluding the major appliance category, from which the company completed its exit in early November 2000, same-store sales declined 4 percent. <br> <br> The company said that Circuit City Group should earn 71 cents to 74 cents a share in the fourth quarter, including 6 cents from CarMax. That is slightly narrower than its reduced forecast range of 70 cents to 74 cents, released last month. Last month&#39;s earnings reduction was prompted by disappointing sales in January and February, in part because of inventory shortages of items like camcorders. <br> <br> The company plans to report fourth-quarter and full-year results on April 2. <br> <br> For the year, the company expects to earn 90 cents to 93 cents a share for Circuit City Group. <br> <br> Meanwhile, at CarMax total sales for the quarter were up 22 percent to $779.3 million, from $640 million. Same-store sales rose 23 percent. <br> <br> For the year, total sales for CarMax Group rose 28 percent to $3.20 billion from $2.50 billion in the prior year. Same-store sales were up 28 percent. <br> <br> The company estimates quarterly earnings for the CarMax stock to come in at 17 cents a share. Last month it had advised investors to expect earnings of 16 or 17 cents a share. <br> <br> For the year, CarMax is expected to generate 82 cents per share. <br> <br> <br>

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