Bed Bath & Beyond Lowers Q3 Guidance

Bed Bath & Beyond has lowered its fiscal guidance for its third quarter, citing slower than expected sales.

Noting that the company is still in process of its quarterly financial close, the company now estimates net sales for the quarter ended November 28 to be approximately $3 billion, an increase of 0.3% when compared to the same period in the previous year. Bed Bath & Beyond had predicted quarterly net sales to increase between 1.8% and 4%.

In addition, Bed Bath & Beyond now estimates third quarter comparable sales to have decreased by 0.4%, or relatively flat on a constant currency basis. The 0.4% unfavorable impact of foreign currency fluctuations is consistent with its previous model, the company said. Including the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, the company’s previous guidance for comparable sales was an increase between 1% and 3%.

Based on the lower-than-modeled sales results in the third quarter, the company now estimates fiscal 2015 third quarter net earnings per diluted share of approximately $1.07 to $1.10, as compared to the company's previous net earnings per diluted share model of approximately $1.14 to $1.21.

"Our performance in the third quarter reflects the recent trends we have been experiencing," said Steven Temares, Bed Bath & Beyond CEO. "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."

The company also noted that comparable sales from the beginning of the fiscal fourth quarter through Christmas are anticipated to increase approximately 1%.

Bed Bath & Beyond will report full results for its fiscal third quarter on January 7.