Circuit City 1st-Quarter Profit Rises 38%

Circuit City Group said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 38% to $57.1 million, or 28 cents a share, boosted by increased sales of home office products. The nation’s second-largest consumer electronics retailer and operator of the CarMax auto chain said sales rose 11% to $2.45 billion. The earnings performance was in line with the company’s guidance last week of 28 cents a share, and matched the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. Circuit City’s stock has lost almost a third of its value since last week, when it warned that its gross profit margin would be narrower than forecast because of declining sales of large appliances. Circuit City also said it will no longer report monthly sales because they focus attention on short-term sales variations rather than on overall results. Shares of Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City fell $1.56 to close at $35.81 on the NYSE.