Bed Bath & Beyond Results Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - Home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) said Tuesday after the markets closed that its second quarter profit fell 10% from last year, as higher costs and expenses more than offset a 4.3% increase in sales.

However, the company's quarterly earnings per share came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly sales. At the same time, the company gave a slightly downbeat earnings forecast for the current quarter.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares are currently gaining 7.35% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $62.69, down $1.00 or 1.57%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $54.96 to $80.82.

The Union, New Jersey-based company operates a chain of retail stores under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond, World Market, Cost Plus World Market, World Market Stores, Christmas Tree Shops, andThat!, Harmon, Harmon Face Values and buybuy BABY, selling a wide assortment of domestics merchandise and home furnishings. As of August 30, 2014, the company had a total of 1,506 stores, including 1,017 Bed Bath & Beyond stores.

For the second quarter ended August 30, 2014, the company reported net income of $224.0 million or $1.17 per share, compared to $249.3 million or $1.16 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.14 per share for the second quarter.

Net sales for the second quarter rose 4.3% to $2.95 billion from $2.82 billion in the same quarter last year. Same-store sales in the second quarter increased about 3.4%. Twenty-one analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.89 billion for the second quarter.

During the second quarter, the company repurchased about 16.9 million shares of its common stock for about $1.0 billion. As of August 30, the remaining balance of the new $2.0 billion share repurchase program authorized in July was about $1.8 billion.

Looking forward, the company said it is modeling earnings to be $1.17 to $1.21 for the third quarter, $1.78 to $1.83 for the fourth quarter and $5.00 to $5.08 for the full fiscal year 2014. Previously, the company expected full year fiscal 2014 earnings per share to increase by a mid-single digit percentage.

Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.20 per share for the third quarter and $5.03 per share for the full fiscal year 2014.