Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
BBBY,
shares sank 6% in Thursday premarket trading after the retail company reported a surprise fiscal third-quarter loss and sales that missed expectations. Net losses totaled $276.4 million, or $2.78 per share, after a loss of $75.4 million, or 61 cents per share, last year. Excluding special items, adjusted loss per share was 25 cents, below the FactSet consensus for earnings of a penny per share. Sales of $1.878 billion were down from $2.618 billion and below the FactSet consensus of $1.951 billion. Comparable sales fell 7% with the namesake chain of home goods stores down 10% and BuyBuy Baby up mid-teens percentage. The FactSet consensus was for a comparable sales decline of 0.9%. “[O]verall sales were pressured despite customer demand due to the lack of availability with replenishment inventory and supply chain stresses that had an estimated $100 million, or mid-single digit, impact on the quarter and an even higher impact in December,” said Chief Executive Mark Tritton in a statement. Still, Tritton says the Beyond+ loyalty program gained nearly half a million members in the quarter and BuyBuy Baby is achieving double-digit growth. For the fourth quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond expects sales of $2.1 billion and adjusted EPS in the range of $0 to 15 cents. The FactSet consensus is for sales of $2.25 billion and EPS of 70 cents. For the year, the company expects sales of $7.9 billion, high-single digit comparable sales growth, and adjusted EPS in the range of flat to a loss of 15 cents. The FactSet consensus is for sales of $8.14 billion, comparable sales growth of 11.7%, and EPS of 74 cents. Bed Bath & Beyond stock is down 36.5% for the last year while the S&P 500 index
SPX,
has gained 25.4% for the period.