Bed Bath & Bulls... All-Time Highs (BBBY)

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) is tonight’s top after-hours mover on volume after the household goods retailer reported a blowout on its fourth-quarter earnings.  This company just manages to keep on going and going.

The company showed solid gains as its net income rose to $283 million, or $1.12 EPS, versus $226 million, or $0.86 EPS, a year ago.  Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.97 EPS for the quarter.  Revenues grew more than 11% and hit right at $2.5 billion versus $2.24 billion a year ago.  That compares with Thomson Reuters estimates of $2.39 billion.

The good times are expected to keep rolling if its guidance is to be believed. Bed Bath & Beyond sees next quarter at $0.58 to $0.61 EPS versus $0.60 estimates from Thomson Reuters.  For the year it called for overall growth of 10% to 15%, translating to about $3.41 to $3.58 EPS against Thomson Reuters estimates of $3.33 EPS.

This is what happens when your quarterly same-store sales rise about 8.5%.  Bed Bath & Beyond ended with more than $1.18 billion in cash and over $605 million in short-term investments with another $121 million in long-term securities.  During the last quarter, the company bought back about $199 million of its common stock, which comes to about 4.1 million shares.

This stock closed up 1% at $49.39 versus a 52-week trading range of $26.50 to $50.95.  Shares are up 9% to a year high of $53.85 in the after-hours session.  If the after-hours level holds, go ahead and count this all-time highs rather than just 52-week highs.

JON C. OGG