Fiscal 2005 has come and gone for Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY). The home-furnishings retailer has flipped the mattress, and tomorrow, we get our first glimpse at how the new year's going, when it reports its fiscal Q1 2006 results.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? Of the 27 analysts crowding the aisles at Bed Bath & Beyond, only one of them rates the stock a sell. Of the rest, 15 say buy and 11 say hold.
  • Revenues. Just as it did last quarter, Wall Street predicts 12% sales growth. This quarter's magic number is $1.4 billion.
  • Earnings. Profits, however, are predicted to rise by only 6% and hit $0.35 per share.

What management says:
This is a company of few words, at least when it comes to tooting its own horn. Last quarter, the company handily beat analyst estimates for both earnings and sales. But beyond reporting the bare numbers, it had precious little to say about its performance in fiscal Q4 2005. As for what we had to say, you can read fellow Fool Ryan Fuhrmann's write-up on the quarter.

What management does:
Fortunately for its shareholders, what Bed Bath & Beyond lacks in loquaciousness, it makes up for in performance. Rolling gross, operating, and net margins are all up noticeably over the past 18 months. Looking back over the past six months' numbers, we can see its revenues rising 13% on average, with the cost of goods sold lagging that rate just a bit, and operating costs leading it by about 100 basis points or so. If that trend holds, we might see operating and net margins deteriorate, but so far, they're holding pretty firm.

Margins %

8/04

11/04

2/05

5/05

8/05

11/05

Gross

42.2

42.5

42.5

42.6

42.7

42.8

Op.

14.9

15.4

15.4

15.5

15.3

15.6

Net

9.4

9.8

9.9

10.0

9.9

9.9
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

The Fool says:
Ordinarily, in this section of a Foolish Forecast for a company that we've recommended, I'd give you a glimpse at the recommending analysts' most recent thoughts on the company. Today, however, I'm in a bind. Stock Advisor co-analyst Tom Gardner, who picked the stock last year, recently updated his valuations on all of the companies he's recommended for our subscribers. Problem is, he did this just one month ago, and publishing the details of his analysis so quickly wouldn't be fair to our paying subscribers.

For this reason, all I feel comfortable saying is that Tom continues to like the company and was pleased with its recently completed share buyback. For more details on Tom's thinking, and on his death-by-heat-exhaustion-daring pledge to hike the length of the Commonwealth of Virginia if he's wrong, you'll need to click here.

Competitors:

  • Cost Plus (NASDAQ:CPWM)
  • Pier 1 (NYSE:PIR)
  • J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP)
  • Target (NYSE:TGT)
  • Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)
  • Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM)

Wal-Mart is an Inside Value recommendation.

Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of any company named above.