What happened
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) was a stock market laggard on Wednesday. In late afternoon trading, the specialty retailer's share price was down marginally (by 0.3%) on a day when the S&P 500 index was trading well higher. The culprit was the company's latest set of quarterly results.
So what
For the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2021, which ended Feb. 26, Bed Bath & Beyond posted net sales of $2.05 billion, which was down a steep 22% from the same period of the previous year. Comparable sales also declined although not as badly, sliding by 12%. The story was similarly grim on the bottom line, on which the company flipped to an $82 million ($0.92 per share) loss, from the year-ago profit of $47 million.
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Both headline figures missed analyst expectations, particularly the net loss. On average, prognosticators following the stock were expecting net sales of $2.07 billion, and a net profit of $0.03 per share.
Bed Bath & Beyond's underperformance was due to several damaging trends. In the earnings release, CEO Mark Tritton said, "Macroeconomic factors, such as the disruption of the global supply chain, the Omicron variant, as well as the geopolitical turbulence weighing on consumer confidence, have uncovered more vulnerabilities than we could have foreseen at this stage of our transformation, as we completely rebuild the foundation of our business."
Now what
Bed Bath & Beyond proffered selected guidance for the entirety of fiscal 2022. It believes that comparable sales will rise sequentially in the second half of the year, although it provided no details. Similarly, non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) should also increase in the same time frame. The company did not provide any net profit guidance for the year.
