Bed Bath & Beyond Is Down 5% Following Lowered Q3 Guidance

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were trading lower by more than 5 percent at $48.49 early Wednesday morning after the company issued a downward revision to its third quarter guidance. Bed Bath & Beyond said it now expects its third quarter sales to be approximately $3 billion, representing an increase of approximately 0.3 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The company previously guided its third quarter revenue to rise by 1.8 to 4 percent. Bed Bath & Beyond also revised its third quarter earnings per share estimate to a range of $1.07 to $1.10, short of the company's prior guidance range of $1.14 to $1.21. Finally, Bed Bath & Beyond noted that it expects its comparable sales from the beginning of the fiscal fourth quarter through Christmas to rise by approximately 1 percent. "Our performance in the third quarter reflects the recent trends we have been experiencing," stated Steven H. Temares, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. "On the one hand we experienced softer in-store transaction counts, and on the other hand sales from our customer-facing digital channels demonstrated strong growth, in excess of 25%. These mixed results were also impacted by the overall softness reported in the macro-retail environment during the quarter.