The company gave guidance for the fourth quarter in the range of $1.78 to $1.83 in earnings per share. Thomson Reuters has the consensus estimate at $1.80 in earnings per share.
In the second quarter Bed Bath & Beyond bought back approximately $1 billion in stock, which was nearly four times the size of the first quarter’s $273 million in share repurchases. The $1.1 billion accelerated share repurchase program, which commenced in July 2014, was completed in December 2014. As of November 29, 2014, the remaining balance of the $2.0 billion share repurchase program was approximately $1.8 billion.
The company had over $1 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter. This was versus $367 million at the beginning of the period. Retailers sure love that holiday-backed quarter.
24/7 Wall St. included a few recent key analyst calls for Bed Bath & Beyond:
- Barclays maintained an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $87 from $70 on January 6
- Citigroup reiterated a Hold rating and raised its price target to $80 from $70 on January 5
- Canaccord Genuity upgraded Bed Bath & Beyond to a Buy rating from Hold and raised its price target to $91 from $66 on January 2
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond closed Thursday up 1.6% at $79.45. Following the earnings report, the initial response in the post market was negative and shares were down over 5% at $75.15.
The company’s stock has a consensus analyst price target of $67.90 and a 52-week trading range of $54.96 to $79.62. It has a market cap of $14 billion.
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