JB Hi-Fi shares up after sales recovery

Electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi's shares jumped nine per cent after it said it expected to reap $3.6b in total sales this year, despite a slow start.

JB Hi-Fi has bounced back from a poor start to the year with two consecutive months of sales growth.

New smartphone and gaming consoles-loving consumers have driven the recovery.

The retailer's shares jumped by $1.33, or nine per cent, to $16.10 on Wednesday, making it the best performer on the ASX100.

The gains were welcome news for the retailer, whose shares fell by more than a quarter in the two months after it revealed July sales had dropped 5.5 per cent year on year.

Investors on Wednesday reacted to new chief executive Richard Murray's speech at JB Hi-Fi's AGM in which he said the retailer was on track to meet its previous guidance of a 3.4 per cent rise in 2014/15 total sales to $3.6 billion.

Comparable sales - excluding store growth - were down 2.1 per cent between July and October 26.

That indicates a 3.5 per cent rise in September and October after the bad start, with the company forecasting like-for-like sales to be flat for the year.

Mr Murray said a structural decline in sales of tablets, such as iPads, was slowing and being more than replaced by interest in new smartphones, best demonstrated by the recent long queues of loyal Apple customers wanting the iPhone 6.

"It is great having customers excited about their phones as they continue to become personal ecosystems," he said.

"The last couple of years there has not been that stepchange."

JB Hi-Fi is strongly leveraged to people's willingness to upgrade those products and others, such as TVs.

Mr Murray said another key to capturing momentum leading into the crucial Christmas period would be through sales of PlayStation 4 and Xbox consoles - partly through more stock after they ran out last year - and possibly TVs.

Morningstar analyst Tim Montague-Jones said Wednesday's share price rise was also influenced by short sellers - traders that have bet on the stock to fall - unwinding their positions because of the positive news.

"Things do not appear as bad as they were initially presented back in August, although the share price is still quite a long way down from what it was," he told AAP.

Mr Murray also defended the company's move into the whitegoods market through its new HOME appliances stores after one shareholder criticised it.

"One challenge for every retailer whether its JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman or Dick Smith is that rent goes up each year and wages go up ... we have to inject growth into the model to ensure we stay ahead of our competitors," he said.


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