Bed Bath & Beyond Cuts Q4 Outlook On Severe Winter

(RTTNews) - Home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) Friday lowered its financial outlook for the fourth quarter, citing harsh winter conditions.

The Union, New Jersey-based company now expects earnings of about $1.57 to $1.61 for the fourth quarter, down from prior estimate of $1.60 to $1.67 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently estimate earnings of $1.65 per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Bed Bath & Beyond said the impact of the disruptive weather was such that 464 times a store was closed for a full day and 1,923 times a store was closed for a partial day.

For the quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond expects the severe weather to impact its comparable store sales in the range of 2 percent to 2.5 percent and earnings by about $0.06 to $0.07 per share.

The company's comparable store sales for the fourth quarter grew about 1.7 percent as compared with its previous model of an increase of about 2 percent to 4 percent.

Chief Executive Steven Temares said, "Despite the weather related challenges, we are pleased with our quarter. Absent the disruptive weather, we believe we would have been comfortably within our sales and net earnings per share ranges of our model. "

Harsh winter weather across most of the U.S. has broadly hurt the economy and retailers were no exception as shoppers chose to stay at home. Retailers also had to wade through a tough holiday season that was marked by heavy discounting and heightened competition.

Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond operates retail stores that sell a range of domestics merchandise and home furnishings under its eponymous brand as well as names like World Market, Christmas Tree Shops, andThat!, Harmon, among others.

BBBY closed Friday's trading at $69.16, up $0.90 or 1.32%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further rose $0.34 or 0.49% in after-hours trade.