What happened
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) stock has had a terrific year, rising 57% so far despite declining sales (and the year's not done yet). This morning, investors kept the momentum running, bidding up the shares after financial news organization Reorg Research reported that the company has chosen a new chief financial officer to replace outgoing CFO Robyn D'Elia.
Shares popped nearly 6% in response initially, and remain up 2.4% as of 11:11 a.m.
So what
Is this news good enough to justify a 6% run-up in the stock? Maybe not, seeing as those gains are already melting away.
And really, all we know at this point is that StreetInsider.com says that Bloomberg says that Reorg says that Bed Bath & Beyond says...that it has hired away Target (TGT 2.19%) CFO Cathy Smith to become its new CFO.
That's quite a telephone chain, and so far at least, neither Bed Bath nor Target has confirmed any of this.
Now what
Regardless, investors seem happy with just the prospect that D'Elia will be replaced. Given that during her tenure (D'Elia became CFO in June 2018), Bed Bath's sales have declined 6.5% year over year and the company has gone from earning profits to booking losses, that happiness is understandable. During the same period, Target's sales are up about 3%, and its per-share profits 4%, not bad growth in a tough retail environment -- but maybe not anything to get too excited about, either, at least until we get confirmation that the news is real.