Bed Bath & Beyond Q2 Profit Tops Street

(RTTNews) - Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) on Wednesday reported a second-quarter profit that trumped Wall Street estimates, despite a 7% drop in revenues. The home goods retailer's revenues for the quarter fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond reported second-quarter loss of $138.8 million or $1.12 per share, compared with last year's profit of $48.6 million or $0.36 per share last year.

Excluding one-time items, earnings for the quarter were $0.34 per share. On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.27 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the quarter dropped 7.3% to $2.72 billion from $2.94 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus sales estimate of $2.75 billion for the quarter. Comparable sales in the quarter decreased by about 6.7 percent.

Interim CEO Mary Winston said, "We are making good progress against our four key near-term priorities, including: (1) stabilizing sales and driving top-line growth; (2) resetting the cost structure; (3) reviewing and optimizing the Company's asset base, including the portfolio of retail banners; and (4) refining our organization structure."

Looking forward to full year 2019, Bed Bath & Beyond now expects sales of around $11.4 billion and earnings of $2.08 to $2.13 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.86 a share and revenues of $11.36 billion.

Previously, Bed Bath & Beyond expected fiscal year 2019 results to be at the lower end of $11.4 billion to $11.7 billion for net sales and $2.11 to $2.20 for earnings per share.

Further, the company said it has "made substantial progress toward identifying a permanent CEO." The company expects to "make an announcement soon."

BBBY closed Wednesday's trading at $10.02, down $0.30 or 2.91% on the Nasdaq. The stock further slipped $0.35 or 3.49% in the after-hours trade.