H.H. Gregg got a lift from Circuit City’s demise, the 110-store r...

and strong buying opportunities,” President Dennis May said. It now expects to report earnings per share of $1.08 to $1.11 for the year, up from its previous estimate of 85 cents to 95 cents and better than the EPS of $1.07 it posted for fiscal 2008, it said. It also expects to report fiscal 2009 sales of about $1.4 billion. For Q4, it expects to report sales of about $365 million, a 13 percent increase from Q4 2008. Q4 comparable store sales fell 6.5 percent from a year ago, but that was better than the 7 to 11 percent decline it had predicted. It expects Q4 EPS to come in at 39 cents to 42 cents, up from 32 cents in Q4 2008. The Q4 results “were driven by better than expected performance in sales, gross margin and expense leverage,” said May. The retailer’s “cost savings, inventory management and working capital initiatives drove higher operating efficiencies throughout the quarter” as well, he said. But he said “the overall environment remains challenging,” and it will “face our most difficult same store sales comparison of the year during the first half” of fiscal 2010, which he said “will be impacted by a larger seasonal concentration of appliances in our sales mix, a shift in timing of the Easter holiday, and the lapping of the 2008 stimulus checks.” The updated forecast was based on unaudited preliminary results and the retailer doesn’t plan to report final fiscal 2009 and Q4 results until June, it said.