Retail

Bed Bath & Beyond Falls Short on Both Top and Bottom Lines

Chris Lange

Published: June 22, 2016 4:45 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 6:29 am

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Wednesday. The company said that it had $0.80 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.7 billion in revenue. Thomson Reuters had consensus estimates that called for $0.86 in EPS on $2.78 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $0.93 in EPS on $2.74 billion in revenue.

Comparable sales are slowing in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 with a decrease of roughly 0.5%, compared with an increase of 2.2% in the prior year period. In the fiscal fourth-quarter (sequentially), comparable sales increased roughly 1.7%, an increase of 2.1% on a constant currency basis, compared with an increase of 3.7% from last year.

As for the comparable sales from customer-facing digital channels, they grew in excess of 20% while comparable sales from stores declined in the low single-digit percentage range during the fiscal first-quarter. In the fiscal fourth quarter, comparable sales from customer-facing digital channels grew in excess of 25% while comparable sales from stores were relatively flat.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2016, the company repurchased roughly $178 million of its common stock, representing about 3.8 million shares, under its existing $2.5 billion share repurchase authorization.  At the end of May, the program had a remaining balance of $2.1 billion, and is expected to be completed in fiscal 2019 or fiscal 2020.

In terms of guidance for the fiscal year the company expects EPS to be in the range of $4.50 to $5.00. There are consensus estimates for the full fiscal year that are calling for $4.99 in EPS on $12.36 billion in revenue.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond closed at $43.18, with a consensus analyst price target of $47.74 and a 52-week trading range of $41.26 to $71.20. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down 5.4% at $40.85 in the after-hours trading session.