Bed Bath & Beyond tanks as it cuts FY sales, earnings outlook
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
$0.08
11:00 15/07/24
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond tanked on Thursday after the US retailer downgraded its full-year earnings and sales outlook and reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter sales.
The company said second-quarter revenue slumped 26% from the same period a year ago to $1.99bn, missing expectations of $2.06bn. Meanwhile, same-store sales declined 1% versus the second quarter of last year, mainly due to slower-than-expected traffic trends in August across stores and digital.
President and chief executive officer Mark Tritton said: "While our results this quarter were below expectations, we remain confident in our multi-year transformation. Following solid growth in June, we saw unexpected, external disruptive forces towards the end of the quarter that impacted our outcome.
"In August, the final and largest month of our second fiscal period, traffic slowed significantly and, therefore, sales did not materialise as we had anticipated. As Covid-19 fears re-emerged amid the on-going Delta variant, we experienced a challenging environment. This was particularly evident in large, key states such as Florida, Texas and California, which represent a substantial portion of our sales."
The company also highlighted "unprecedented" supply chain challenges across the industry and said it saw steeper cost inflation escalating by month, especially later in the quarter, beyond the significant increases it was already expecting.
Based on its performance so far this year, Bed Bath & Beyond cut its expectations for the year. It’s now expecting adjusted earnings of between $0.70 and $1.10 per diluted share, down from previous guidance of $1.40 to $1.55. As far as sales are concerned, it's forecasting $8.1bn to $8.3bn, down from $8.2bn to $8.4bn previously.
At 1415 BST, the shares were down 39% at $15.91.