Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Posts Solid Q4 Results, But Outlook Underwhelms

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY) posted market-beating fiscal fourth quarter earnings results, but offered a weak 2017 outlook amid lagging same-store sales.

Written by StockNews.com

The Union, NJ-based home goods retailer reported:

• Q4 earnings per share (EPS) of $1.84, which was $0.06 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.78.
• Revenues up 3.4% from last year to $3.53 billion, also topping analysts’ view for $3.5 billion.
• Comparable sales (“comps”) in the latest period rose 0.4%, indicating a slowdown from the comps growth rate of 1.7% in the year-ago period.
• Digital sales jumped 20%,
• while brick-and-mortar comps slumped in the low single digits.

Looking ahead, BBBY forecast full-year 2017 EPS to fall in the low single-digits to 10% (from $4.58 last year). Analysts are looking for $4.58 per share again for the year, so the company’s results will likely miss that estimate considerably.

The company commented via press release:

“During fiscal 2016, we made significant investments to evolve our Company and advance our mission to be trusted by our customers as the expert for the home and ‘heart-related’ life events by continuing to build and deliver a strong foundation of differentiated products, and services and solutions for customers, while driving operational excellence.”

...Year-to-date, BBBY has declined -6.69%, versus a 5.49% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

BBBY currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of C (Neutral), and is ranked #39 of 61 stocks in the Home Improvement & Goods category.