JB Hi-Fi took $3.8 billion in six months

JB Hi-Fi has reported another set of solid financial results, raking in $3.8 billion in sales in the first half of the 2019 financial year.

Revenue for the group, which include JB Hi-Fi Australia and New Zealand and whitegoods specialist retailer The Good Guys, was up 4.2 percent for the six-month period ending 31 December 2018.

Australian sales in particular were up 4.7 percent to $2.6 billion, compared with NZ$131.8 million in New Zealand and $1.13 billion for The Good Guys.

Hardware and services performed particularly well with sales up 6 percent thanks to growth in communications, games hardware, audio, fitness and connected technology, while software sales dropped 5.6 percent due to the decline in movie and music sales.

Earnings for the entire group got a nice bump, up 4.8 percent to $236.6 million, while net profit was up 5.5 percent to $160.1 million.

"In a competitive environment we remained focused on sales and market share whilst continuing to evolve the business. We enter the second half excited by the opportunity to continue growing one of Australia's leading retail brands," chief executive Richard Murray said.

The company trotted out the same line for its enterprise services business, JB Hi-Fi Solutions, as it has since at least 2015: that it recorded double-digit growth and was on-track to delivery $500 million in annual sales.

Looking ahead, JB Hi-Fi expects to open five new stores this financial year and two new Good Guys stores, while closing two stores in Australia and one in New Zealand. The company expects its total revenue in to be in the realm of $7.1 billion, and total net profit in the range of $237 million to $245 million, which would represent a 1.6 – 5.1 percent increase.

JB Hi-Fi's shares were up 3.32 percent this morning reaching $23.33 each at the time of writing.