Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $1.81 in earnings per share (EPS) on $3.39 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the specialty retailer posted EPS of $1.80 and $3.34 billion in revenue.
This retail giant of household products has been public for almost 25 years now. Bed Bath & Beyond had a very strong growth story for years, but that was before its recent spate of problems meeting earnings estimates or keeping guidance up. The company has turned to stock buybacks to boost earnings and shrink its float, but it gets to keep buying back stock at lower and lower share prices due to those disappointing headwinds.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares peaked at roughly $80 but have dipped back to under $50 by the start of 2016. Analysts have all thrown in the towel and revenue growth has all but stalled. Still, with $5.00 or more in EPS power and only $1.5 billion in long-term debt, this retail giant needs to start paying a dividend now that its growth prospects seem to have peaked.
A few analysts weighed in on Bed Bath & Beyond prior to the release of the earnings report:
- Wedbush reiterated a Neutral rating with a price target of $46.
- Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating and lowered its price target to $46 from $51.
- Barclays initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $50 price target.
- Nomura has a Neutral rating and a $50 price target.
So far in 2016 Bed Bath & Beyond has more or less kept in line with the board markets, with the stock up 2%. However, over the past 52 weeks the stock is down over 35%.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were trading at $49.35 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $48.17 and a 52-week trading range of $41.26 to $78.10.
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