What happened
Shares of home-goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) were down sharply in early trading on Thursday, after the company reported a loss for its fiscal first quarter that was wider than Wall Street had expected.
As of 10:15 a.m. EDT, Bed Bath & Beyond's shares were down about 21% from Wednesday's closing price.
About 200 Bed Bath & Beyond stores will close under a restructuring plan, the company's CEO said on Wednesday. Image source: Bed Bath & Beyond.
So what
Bed Bath & Beyond reported earnings for the quarter that ended May 30 after the market closed yesterday, and they weren't good. With many of its stores closed in the quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company's revenue fell 49% from a year ago to $1.3 billion, and adjusted earnings per share fell from $0.12 a year ago to a loss of $1.96.
That was a big miss: Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected an adjusted loss of $1.22 per share, on average. Worse, that 49% revenue decline happened despite a much-touted (and widely expected) jump in online sales, which grew 82% year over year -- albeit from a low year-ago number.
As part of a restructuring plan that aims to cut annual costs by between $250 million and $300 million, the company will close about 200 of its 955 Bed Bath & Beyond stores in the U.S. and Canada, CEO Mark Tritton said.
Now what
Consumer-discretionary investors hoping for guidance were disappointed. While Tritton confirmed that nearly all of the company's stores have reopened, the company declined to provide guidance for the full fiscal year, citing continuing uncertainties around the pandemic.
