On Thursday, Bed Bath and Beyond shares declined after the retailer’s quarterly sales report showed a 5 % decrease in sales from last year. The company said that this was due to the closure of its stores as well as the sale of non-core assets including Cost Plus World Market. Premarket trading saw the stocks go down by 13%.

Same-store sales, including Buy Buy Baby and Harmon Face Values, rose by 2%. When compared with sales in 2019, digital sales rose by 77%. Bed Bath’s namesake banner’s online growth increased by 94%. The retailer said that kitchen food prep, indoor decor, bedding and bath supplies contributed to two thirds of the total sales in this quarter.

As per Wednesday’s close, Bed Bath & Beyond shares had risen by 21% in the last twelve months. This gave it a market cap of $2.6 billion. The company’s outlook is that its stores will remain open and its new private-label brands will help set it apart from rivals including Walmart, Amazon and Target, whose sales have reached gigantic heights during the pandemic.

However, the company has performed below par as per what the analysts had predicted which is based on data from Refinitiv.

The company earned 8 cents per share, excluding $86 million in one-time charges on losses due to asset sales and restructuring and impairment charges. Analysts expected 19 cents per share.

Net sales decreased by 5% to $2.62   billion. A year earlier sales were $2.76 billion, and analysts had   forecast $2.75 billion in sales.
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