Bed Bath & Beyond falls short

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. reported less-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, hurt by continuing higher expenses and flat sales.



The retailer’s profit dropped to $126.4 million or $0.85 per share, from $177.8 million or $1.09 per share in the year-ago period.



Sales inched up 0.1% to $2.96 billion, also lower than expected.



Same-store sales fell 1.4%. Comparable sales from customer-facing digital channels grew in excess of 20% while comparable sales from stores declined in the low single-digit percentage range, the company said.



Bed Bath & Beyond’s selling and administrative expenses increased to $881.5 million from $822.5 million last year, while sales costs rose to $1.86 billion from $1.84 billion last year.



Bed Bath & Beyond said it now expects full fiscal-year profit to be at the low end of its guidance range, which was $4.50 a share to about $5 a share.



As of November 26, 2016, the company had a total of 1,541 stores, including 1,021 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, 278 stores under the names of World Market, Cost Plus World Market or Cost Plus, 111 buybuy Baby stores, 79 stores under the names Christmas Tree Shops, Christmas Tree Shops andThat! or andThat!, and 52 stores under the names Harmon, Harmon Face Values or Face Value.