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Bed Bath & Beyond Stock Falls as SEC Requests Further Information on Annual Report for Fiscal 2021

Greg Morcroft

Published: January 2, 2023 8:08 am

Bed Bath & Beyond’s (US:BBBY) stock took a hit on Friday after the company announced that it had received a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting additional information about its annual report for fiscal 2021.

The request from the SEC, dated Sept. 27 and made public on Friday, sought clarification on how supply chain disruptions affected Bed Bath & Beyond’s operations in the second half of the fiscal year and whether the company had implemented any risk mitigation strategies in response.

In its response, the company confirmed that supply chain challenges and delays had caused net sales to dip by $275 million and gross margins to contract between 3 and 4 percentage points in the fourth quarter due to higher freight costs. However, Bed Bath & Beyond has not taken any mitigation actions as it is currently adjusting its import strategy to source a more significant proportion of its Owned Brands from domestic suppliers.

Interim CFO Laura Crossen stated in a letter dated Nov. 7, “The company does not believe at this time that there is any material direct long-term impact of the fiscal 2021 supply chain disruptions, and thus no significant mitigation efforts have been undertaken.”

Instead, the company has added several new risk factors related to supply chain disruption to its quarterly filings starting in the second quarter of 2022. Bed Bath & Beyond will also include more consistent information on its key operating metrics across its quarterly and annual filings, following the SEC’s request to provide supplemental information in news releases to the regulatory agency.

The stock has lost 83% of its value this year due to a series of adverse events, including poor quarterly performance, the death of CFO Gustavo Arnal, and a distressed debt exchange that has raised the possibility of default in the eyes of credit rating firms.

This article originally appeared on Fintel.