Bed Bath & Beyond Expectations

Here’s part of my latest at Real Money:

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY – commentary – Cramer’s Take) got a huge boost on Wednesday thanks to its better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. The shares jumped 24.3% to close at a six-month high of $31.70.
As good as Wednesday was, I still don’t believe the shares are overpriced. Investors should take notice because BBBY is poised to go a lot higher.
The figure that got traders so excited was BBBY’s net earnings of 55 cents a share, which topped Wall Street’s consensus by an impressive 11 cents a share. This was a big surprise since the company had already pegged fiscal fourth-quarter earnings in a range between 40 cents and 46 cents per share.
Even the company’s own bean counters didn’t see this one coming. Mind you, BBBY’s earnings were still down quite a bit from a year ago — an 18% drop — but investing is an expectations game.

Here are the earnings results going back a few years:

Quarter Sales Gross Profit Operating Profit Net Profit EPS
May-99 $356,633 $146,214 $28,015 $17,883 $0.06
Aug-99 $451,715 $185,570 $53,580 $33,247 $0.12
Nov-99 $480,145 $196,784 $50,607 $31,707 $0.11
Feb-00 $569,012 $238,233 $77,138 $48,392 $0.17
May-00 $459,163 $187,293 $36,339 $23,364 $0.08
Aug-00 $589,381 $241,284 $70,009 $43,578 $0.15
Nov-00 $602,004 $246,080 $64,592 $40,665 $0.14
Feb-01 $746,107 $311,802 $101,898 $64,315 $0.22
May-01 $575,833 $234,959 $45,602 $30,007 $0.10
Aug-01 $713,636 $291,342 $84,672 $53,954 $0.18
Nov-01 $759,438 $311,030 $83,749 $52,964 $0.18
Feb-02 $879,055 $370,235 $132,077 $82,674 $0.28
May-02 $776,798 $318,362 $72,701 $46,299 $0.15
Aug-02 $903,044 $370,335 $119,687 $75,459 $0.25
Nov-02 $936,030 $386,224 $119,228 $75,112 $0.25
Feb-03 $1,049,292 $443,626 $168,441 $105,309 $0.35
May-03 $893,868 $367,180 $90,450 $57,508 $0.19
Aug-03 $1,111,445 $459,145 $155,867 $97,208 $0.32
Nov-03 $1,174,740 $486,987 $161,459 $100,506 $0.33
Feb-04 $1,297,928 $563,352 $231,567 $144,248 $0.47
May-04 $1,100,917 $456,774 $128,707 $82,049 $0.27
Aug-04 $1,273,960 $530,829 $189,108 $120,008 $0.39
Nov-04 $1,305,155 $548,152 $190,978 $121,927 $0.40
Feb-05 $1,467,646 $650,546 $283,621 $180,980 $0.59
May-05 $1,244,421 $520,781 $150,884 $98,903 $0.33
Aug-05 $1,431,182 $601,784 $217,877 $141,402 $0.47
Nov-05 $1,448,680 $615,363 $205,493 $134,620 $0.45
Feb-06 $1,685,279 $747,820 $304,917 $197,922 $0.67
May-06 $1,395,963 $590,098 $148,750 $100,431 $0.35
Aug-06 $1,607,239 $678,249 $219,622 $145,535 $0.51
Nov-06 $1,619,240 $704,073 $211,134 $142,436 $0.50
Feb-07 $1,994,987 $862,982 $309,895 $205,842 $0.72
May-07 $1,553,293 $646,109 $154,391 $104,647 $0.38
Aug-07 $1,767,716 $732,158 $211,037 $147,008 $0.55
Nov-07 $1,794,747 $747,866 $203,152 $138,232 $0.52
Feb-08 $1,933,186 $799,098 $259,442 $172,921 $0.66
May-08 $1,648,491 $656,000 $118,819 $76,777 $0.30
Aug-08 $1,853,892 $739,321 $187,421 $119,268 $0.46
Nov-08 $1,782,683 $692,857 $136,374 $87,700 $0.34
Feb-09 $1,923,274 $785,058 $231,282 $141,378 $0.55

Posted by on April 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm


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