Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Reports Results for Fiscal Third Quarter

UNION, N.J., Dec. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. today reported net earnings of $.95 per diluted share ($228.5 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended November 26, 2011, an increase of approximately 28% versus net earnings of $.74 per diluted share ($188.6 million) in the same quarter a year ago.  Net sales for the fiscal third quarter of 2011 were approximately $2.344 billion, an increase of approximately 6.8% from net sales of approximately $2.194 billion reported in the fiscal third quarter of 2010.  Comparable store sales in the fiscal third quarter of 2011 increased by approximately 4.1%, compared with an increase of approximately 7.0% in last year's fiscal third quarter.

During the fiscal third quarter of 2011, the Company repurchased approximately $328 million of its common stock representing approximately 5.6 million shares.  As of November 26, 2011, the remaining balance of the current share repurchase program authorized in December 2010 was approximately $1.3 billion.

For the fiscal nine months ended November 26, 2011, the Company reported net earnings of $2.60 per diluted share ($638.5 million), an increase of approximately 33% over net earnings of $1.95 per diluted share ($507.9 million) in the corresponding period a year ago.  Net sales for the fiscal nine months of 2011 were approximately $6.768 billion, an increase of approximately 8.2% from net sales of approximately $6.254 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.  Comparable store sales for the fiscal nine months of 2011 increased by approximately 5.5%, compared with an increase of approximately 7.6% in last year's fiscal nine months.

The Company is now modeling net earnings per diluted share to be approximately $1.28 to $1.33 for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 and approximately $3.86 to $3.92 for all of fiscal 2011. 

As of November 26, 2011, the Company had a total of 1,171 stores, including 993 Bed Bath & Beyond stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada, 71 Christmas Tree Shops stores, 61 buybuy BABY stores and 46 stores under the names of Harmon or Harmon Face Values.  During the fiscal third quarter, the Company opened seven Bed Bath & Beyond stores, seven buybuy BABY stores, one Christmas Tree Shops store and one Harmon Face Values store. Consolidated store space as of November 26, 2011 was approximately 36.0 million square feet.  Since the beginning of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 on November 27, 2011, the Company has opened one buybuy BABY store and closed one Harmon store.  In addition, the Company is a partner in a joint venture which operates two stores in the Mexico City market under the name "Home & More."

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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and subsidiaries (the "Company") is a chain of retail stores, operating under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond, Christmas Tree Shops, Harmon, Harmon Face Values and buybuy BABY.  In addition, the Company is a partner in a joint venture which operates retail stores in Mexico under the name "Home & More."  The Company sells a wide assortment of domestics merchandise and home furnishings.  Domestics merchandise includes categories such as bed linens and related items, bath items and kitchen textiles.  Home furnishings include categories such as kitchen and tabletop items, fine tabletop, basic housewares, general home furnishings, consumables and certain juvenile products.  Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. are traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "BBBY" and are included in the Standard and Poor's 500 and Global 1200 Indices and the NASDAQ-100 Index.  The Company is counted among the Fortune 500 and the Forbes 2000.   

This press release may contain forward-looking statements.  Many of these forward-looking statements can be identified by use of words such as may, will, expect, anticipate, approximate, estimate, assume, continue, model, project, plan, and similar words and phrases.  The Company's actual results and future financial condition may differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements as a result of many factors that may be outside the Company's control. Such factors include, without limitation: general economic conditions including the housing market, a challenging overall macroeconomic environment and related changes in the retailing environment, consumer preferences and spending habits; demographics and other macroeconomic factors that may impact the level of spending for the types of merchandise sold by the Company; unusual weather patterns; competition from existing and potential competitors; competition from other channels of distribution; pricing pressures; the ability to attract and retain associates in all areas of the organization; the cost of labor, merchandise and other costs and expenses; the ability to find suitable locations at acceptable occupancy costs to support the Company's expansion program; the impact of failed auctions for auction rate securities held by the Company; disruptions to the Company's information technology systems including but not limited to security breaches of the Company's systems protecting consumer and employee information; changes to statutory, regulatory and legal requirements; changes to, or new, tax laws or interpretation of existing tax laws; and changes to, or new, accounting standards including, without limitation, changes to lease accounting standards.  The Company does not undertake any obligation to update its forward-looking statements. 

SOURCE Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.