The shares of Bed Bath & Beyond plummeted after reporting weaker-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter. The stock price of the retailer declined nearly 6% to $73.52 per share at the time of this writing, around 3:39 in the afternoon in New York.
Bed Bath & Beyond financial results
Bed Bath & Beyond reported that its earnings were $1.80 per share in the fourth quarter of 2014, which ended February 28. During the same period a year ago, the company recorded earnings of $1.60 per share.
Bed Bath & Beyond said its revenues were approximately $3.33 billion, up by 4.2% from its $3.20 billion revenues in the same period a year earlier. The company’s revenues were slightly lower than the $3.37 billion in revenues expected by Wall Street analysts.
During the quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond achieved a 3.7% increase in comparable sales, which is also below the 4.5% comparable sales growth expected by analysts. According to the company, its comparable sales included around 0.2% negative impact from the change in the Canadian currency exchange rate.
For the full fiscal 2014, Bed Bath & Beyond generated earnings of $5.07 per share, up from $4.79 per share in 2013. Its revenues were $11.88 billion, an increase of 3.3% from $11.5 billion in the previous year. Its comparable sales rose 2.4%, which is the same in 2013.
Bed Bath & Beyond repurchased approximately 11.8 million shares of its common stock worth $947 million during the fourth quarter. The company has $884 million remaining balance from its $2 billion shares repurchase program as of February 28.
Business outlook
Beth Bath & Beyond expected to achieve comparable sales growth of around 2% to 3% for the first quarter and full year 2015. The company anticipated delivering earnings in the range of $0.90 to $0,95 per share for the first quarter and a mid-single-digit percentage increase for the fiscal full year.
