Bed Bath & Beyond says weather affected Q4

Union, N.J. -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has provided preliminary information on its fiscal fourth quarter 2013, including the impact of adverse weather conditions during the period. The company's same-store sales for the fiscal fourth quarter increased by approximately 1.7% as compared with its previous model of an increase of approximately 2% to 4%.



For the fiscal quarter, the estimated resulting impact due to the disruptive weather on same-store sales was in the range of 2% to 2.5%, and the estimated impact on net earnings per diluted share for the quarter was approximately $.06 to $.07. The impact of the disruptive weather included 464 times a store was closed for a full day and 1,923 times that a store was closed for a partial day. Although it is early in the process of its financial close, Bed Bath & Beyond now estimates net earnings per diluted share of approximately $1.57 to $1.61 for the quarter as compared with its previous model of $1.60 to $1.67.



"Despite the weather related challenges, we are pleased with our quarter,” said CEO Steven H. Temares. “Absent the disruptive weather, we believe we would have been comfortably within our sales and net earnings per share ranges of our model. Our store associates continue to perform admirably and we thank each of them for their extraordinary effort. We continue to make excellent progress on our omni-channel initiatives and stay on course for the execution of our long term strategic plan."