“Strong” sales in the mobile phone sector has led to Best Buy doing better than predicted in revenue and earnings during the recent first quarter.

“We are pleased that our actions improved sales trends within the quarter, with continued double-digit growth online and strong growth of mobile phones and connections,” Brian J. Dunn, CEO of Best Buy said in a company statement. “We also made progress on our goal of enhancing returns by continuing strong share repurchasing activity.”

According to a story in Barron’s, Best Buy saw revenue for the three months ended in May increasing 1.4 percent to $10.94 billion – compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts had predicted the company would get quarterly revenues of $10.7 billion, according to Barron’s.

In addition, The Associated Press reported that the company saw growth in China, according to TechZone360.

Best Buy’s quarterly revenue was helped by a 12 percent increase from online revenues, according to The AP.

The news about beating analyst expectations led company shares to increase over 7 percent before the stock market opened on Tuesday, TechZone360 added.

It was a mixed picture, however. Net income at Best Buy dropped 12 percent because consumers decided to delay buying such items as televisions and DVDs, TechZone360 said. The AP said Best Buy’s net income dropped to $136 million, as opposed to $155 million during the same period in 2010.

On Wednesday, Best Buy announced it would pay a quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share. The dividend will be paid on July 26.

Best Buy had 377,962,932 shares of common stock issued as of May 28.

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Ed Silverstein is a TechZone360 contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell