Bed Bath & Beyond misses Wall Street estimates in the fiscal third quarter

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ: BBBY) reported its financial results for the fiscal third quarter on Thursday that came in weaker than what analysts had anticipated. The company attributed the decline to the COVID-19 restrictions that weighed on foot traffic at its stores in recent months.

The Coronavirus pandemic has so far infected more than 21 million people in the United States and caused over 370 thousand deaths. The retailer named Patty Wu as the new general manager of its Buy Buy BABY brand on Wednesday.

Bed Bath & Beyond Q3 financial results versus analysts estimates

Bed Bath & Beyond reported £55.61 million of net loss in the third quarter that translates to 44.99 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, the retailer had recorded a significantly lower £28.47 million of loss or 22.86 pence per share.

The American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores said that its per-share earnings stood at 5.90 pence on an adjusted basis in the quarter that concluded on 29^th November. Bed Bath & Beyond registered £1.93 billion of sales in the recent quarter versus the year-ago figure of a higher £2.03 billion.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to print a higher £2.03 billion of sales in Q3. For adjusted per-share earnings, they had estimated 14.01 pence. Comparable sales, as per Bed Bath & Beyond, jumped 2% in the third quarter versus a broader 4.6% increase expected.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s performance in the stock market

At £13.92 per share, Bed Bath & Beyond shares, which you can learn how to buy shares online, are currently trading sharply higher than a low of £2.63 per share in March 2020. The Union-based company said on Thursday:

“Given the significant COVID-related headwinds, including heavy store traffic declines, major shipping constraints and higher freight costs, the company is not providing specific sales and earnings guidance for the fiscal 2020 fourth quarter.”

But the retailer still said that its net sales were likely to see an over 10% decline in net sales, while same-store sales were likely to remain positive in Q4. The earnings report comes a month after Bed Bath & Beyond said it will sell Cost Plus World Market to Kingswood Capital Management.

Bed Bath & Beyond performed only slightly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of close to 7%. At the time of writing, it is valued at £1.76 billion.