Bed Bath & Bust.
Bed Bath & Beyond stock fell more than 10% in Tuesday trading, a sharp reversal from a 3% move higher in pre-market activity, to a level not seen since the close of trading on July 2, 1993. The company's ticker page was among the top five most visited on the Yahoo Finance platform.
The sell-off likely reflects rising investor angst surrounding two key dates for Bed Bath & Beyond, both of which could offer clues on whether the struggling retailer survives the year.
Bed Bath & Beyond spokesperson Julie Strider didn't return Yahoo Finance's request for comment on the stocks' volatility today.
The company is slated to report the results of its debt exchange on Jan. 4 — a date pushed out to the New Year after a muted reception by investors late in 2022.
Then, on Jan. 10, Bed Bath & Beyond is expected to report its latest financial results. Analysts expect another poor quarter as the retailer battled inventory issues and weak traffic throughout the peak holiday shopping season.
Few if any folks on Wall Street would be shocked if the 2022 holiday season were to be Bed Bath & Beyond's last.
The retailer battled throughout 2022 with tanking sales, weak store traffic, low cash levels, and merchandise not aligned with customer tastes. The board ousted Bed Bath & Beyond's turnaround CEO Mark Tritton mid-year. Other execs also fled as cash-saving, cost-cutting efforts are underway.
New CEO Sue Gove hasn't been able to revive the company, which had been heavily discounting products this past holiday season in an effort to raise badly needed cash.
Comparable store sales crashed 26% from a year prior in the fiscal second quarter as the economic slowdown and poor inventory quality weighed on store traffic. The challenged top line and increased discounting led to the company posting an operating loss of $168 million in the quarter.
"All you need to know is that they're just simply not relevant anymore," Anthony Chukumba, analyst at Loop Capital, said on Yahoo Finance Live last week. "And this really was Custer's Last Stand. It's going to pretty much end up the same way that it did for Custer. We will not be having this same conversation a year from now about Bed Bath & Beyond. Bed Bath & Beyond will be gone."
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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