Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) shares fell as much as 11% after the struggling retailer announced it would sell up to $300 million worth of shares and released preliminary fourth-quarter sales results and expectations Analysts missed.
The company had net sales of $1.2 billion, below Wall Street’s estimate of $1.43 billion. Comparable sales declined 40-50% in the three months ended February 25th.
The net proceeds of the stock offering will be used towards its credit facility, for initiatives such as “investments in inventory, further supported by a realigned store footprint and cost structure.”
“The actions we have taken have allowed us to provide the necessary financial runway to begin the recovery of our iconic Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy BABY businesses,” said Sue Gove, President and CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond, in a statement.
In February, the ailing homewares retailer announced an agreement with hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management to secure $1.025 billion in financing from a stock offering. This step was seen as Hail Mary Pass to stay in business, which takes the stock down more than 40% in one day.
In Thursday’s announcement, the company said it was “terminating its prior public stock offering and all outstanding warrants for Series A convertible preferred stock related to that offering.”
Hudson Bay Capital has divested its Bed Bath and Beyond deal as the hedge fund became increasingly concerned about the low share price ahead of its next round of funding in early April, according to a source.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s new investor, B. Riley Securities, is making its payments weekly instead of the monthly installments that Hudson Bay Capital was paying. This will bring in capital to Bed Bath and Beyond more quickly to replenish stocks.
Bed Bath & Beyond has been a favorite of meme stocks for the past few years. The company is considering a 1:5 or 1:10 reverse stock split. The split would boost the value of shares and potentially reignite retailer interest in the stock. According to data from S3 Partners, the short yield on the stock is incredibly high with more than 62% of the free float.
Ines is Senior Business Reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre
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Source : finance.yahoo.com