Bed Bath & Beyond Q2 Misses Wall Street, Stock Tanks

(RTTNews) - Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., (BBBY) on Wednesday said its second-quarter profit declined from a year ago hurt largely by higher expenses that continued to weigh down on the bottom line. The home goods retailer's earnings and sales for the quarter fell short of Wall Street expectations, sending its shares down 14 percent in the after-hours trading.

Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond's second-quarter profit dropped to $48.6 million or $0.36 per share from $94.2 million or $0.67 per share last year. On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.50 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the second quarter inched down to $2.935 billion from $2.936 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus sales estimate of $2.96 billion for the quarter. Comparable sales in the second quarter decreased by about 0.6 percent.

Bed Bath & Beyond has been battling with weak margins. The company's selling and administrative expenses increased to $909.7 million from $899.7 million last year. Cost of sales increased to $1.95 billion from $1.87 billion last year.

The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, to be paid on January 15, 2019 to shareholders of record as of December 14, 2018.

BBBY closed Wednesday's trading at $18.81, down $0.09 or 0.48%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further slipped $2.71 or 14.41%.