Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $1.16 in earnings per share (EPS) on $3.05 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.21 in EPS on $3.00 billion in revenue.
This company has been a very strong growth story for years, but that was before the recent spate of problems that have plagued Bed Bath & Beyond since early 2015. These problems included 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. Even now shares are hovering near 52-week lows.
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 it is expected to be completed in fiscal 2019 or fiscal 2020.
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Prior to the release of the earnings report, a few analysts weighed in on Bed Bath & Beyond:
- Robert Baird has a Hold rating with a $45 price target.
- Credit Suisse has a Hold rating with a $41 price target.
- Wedbush reiterated a Neutral rating with a $42 price target.
So far in 2016, Bed Bath & Beyond has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down 10%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually down 28%.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were trading at $42.96 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $43.06 and a 52-week trading range of $41.15 to $61.90.
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