Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) is set to release its fiscal third quarter financial results before the markets open on Thursday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.35 in earnings per share (EPS) on $8.86 billion in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the specialty retailer posted EPS of $0.34 and revenue of $9.38 billion.

The fourth quarter has always been the biggest for Best Buy for obvious reasons. Both in terms of revenue and earnings, Best Buy needs a good holiday season to satisfy its shareholders, and the company is taking some risks to make sure it meets adequate sales numbers.

Free shipping has been available for Best Buy’s online shoppers since October 25, and that will stay in force all through January 2. It is also doing a price match with Amazon and other online retailers. In a bid to outcompete Amazon in terms of speed of receipt, Best Buy is also offering local store pickup.

Ever since Best Buy’s flirting with going private ended in March 2013, the company has had a major turnaround. Annual operating expenses have dropped 13%, with net income more than doubling since last year.

Ahead of the earnings report a few analysts weighed in on Best Buy:

• Wedbush reiterated a Buy rating with a $37 price target.
• RBC Capital downgraded it to Sector Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $36 from $42.
• Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an Outperform rating.
• Deutsche Bank reiterated a Buy rating with a $42 price target.

So far in 2015, Best Buy has underperformed the market, with the stock down roughly 19% year to date. However, over the course of the past 52 weeks, the stock is only down about 10%.

Shares of Best Buy were trading up more than 2% at $31.37 Wednesday afternoon, with a consensus analyst price target of $41.21 and a 52-week trading range of $28.32 to $42.00.

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