Welcome to Bed Bath & Beyond's Second Quarter of Fiscal 2015 Results Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode for the duration of the call. This conference is being recorded. A rebroadcast of the conference call will be available on Thursday September 24, 2015 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time through 6:30 PM Eastern Time on Monday September 28, 2015. To access the rebroadcast, you may dial 888-843-7419 with a passcode ID of 40642689. At this time, it's my pleasure to turn the conference over to Janet Barth, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Darrel, and good afternoon, everyone. Joining me on today’s call are; Steven Temares, Bed Bath & Beyond's Chief Executive Officer; and Sue Lattmann, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements including statements about or references to our internal models and our long-term objectives. All such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we say during the call today. Please refer to our most recent periodic SEC filings for more detail on these risks and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as events or circumstances may change after this call Our earnings press release dated September 24, 2015 can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.bedbathandbeyond.com. Here are some highlights from the press release. Second quarter net earnings per diluted share increased to $1.21 in line with our model. Net sales for the quarter increased approximately 1.7% over the same period last year or 2.2% higher on a constant currency basis and comparable sales increased by approximately 0.7% or 1.1% on a constant currency basis. The company continues to model fiscal 2015 net earnings per diluted share to be between relatively flat and a mid-single digit percentage increase. Today, the Board of Directors authorized a new $2.5 billion share repurchase program to commence after the completion of the existing program, which is estimated to be in early fiscal 2016. During our call, Steven will review some highlights from the quarter and then provide an update on the strategic investments and ongoing initiatives that we believe will continue to position our company for long-term profitable growth and further enhance shareholder value. Sue will then discuss our quarterly financial results in more detail as well as review some of our key modeling assumptions for the remainder of fiscal 2015. Let me now turn the call over to Steven.

Thank you, Janet, and good afternoon everyone. We reported positive growth in both sales and net earnings per share this quarter while we continue to make strategic investments in our future and return value to our shareholders through share repurchases. As Janet said, our fiscal 2015 second quarter net earnings per diluted share increased to $1.21 on net sales of approximately $3 billion. Net sales increased about 1.7%, or 2.2% on a constant currency basis. Despite slightly lower than modeled top line sales growth, we are pleased to have generated net earnings per share within the midpoint of our range. Comparable sales increased approximately 0.7% or 1.1% on a constant currency basis. Comparable sales consummated through customer-facing websites and mobile applications grew in excess of 25% while comparable sales consummated in stores declined approximately 1%. Directionally this follows the trend of strong comps in our customer-facing digital channels and relatively flat comps in stores. As we have previously pointed out, these numbers in and of themselves are directional in assessing the productivity of our various channels for reasons such as; when an item purchased online is returned to a store results in a reduction in stores sales; or when an item is being shopped for in the store and concurrently purchased on a mobile device, it is treated as a mobile sale; or when an item is reserved online and picked up in a store, it’s recorded as a store sale. As our digital and physical channels continue to converge, the physical stores remain central to serving our customers and provide us a tremendous opportunity to be close to them. The ability to consult with our knowledgeable and solutions-oriented sales associates coupled with our in-store services, encourage customers to visit and spend time in our stores. Options such as reserve…

Thank you Steven. I’ll start with the review of our second quarter results and then provide an update on some of our modeling assumptions for the remainder of fiscal 2015. Net sales for the second quarter were approximately $3 billion, about 1.7% higher than net sales in the prior year period or approximately 2.2% higher on a constant currency basis. Of this increase, approximately 41% was attributable to the increase in comp sales and the remainder was primarily from new stores and Linen Holdings. Comparable sales in the second quarter increased by approximately 0.7% attributable to an increase in the average transaction amount partially offset by a slight decrease in the number of transactions. Canadian currency fluctuations unfavorably impacted our comparable sales in the second quarter by approximately 40 basis points. We had originally modeled an impact of 20 to 30 basis points. Gross profit for the second quarter was approximately 38.1% of net sales compared to approximately 38.5% of net sales in the corresponding period a year ago. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales decreased primarily due to an order of magnitude, an increase in coupon expense resulting from an increase in the number of redemptions and a slight increase in the average coupon amount and an increase in inventory acquisition costs. Also contributing was an increase in net direct to customer shipping expense. Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the second quarter were approximately 26.4% of net sales as compared to 26% of net sales in the prior-year period. This increase in SG&A as a percentage of net sales was primarily attributable to an increase in technology expenses and related depreciation. Reflecting these movements in gross profit margin and SG&A expenses, the second quarter operating profit margin of 11.7% was approximately 80 basis points lower when…

Thank you, Sue. As I said earlier, we have a customer centric culture and in our mission to do more for and with customers, we strive to excel in the categories for which we are best known to excite customers with additional offerings and solutions and to provide the highest level of service to create the best shopping experience. We are committed to making the necessary investments to position our company for long-term success. We are and must remain flexible and nimble to be able to respond to the ever-evolving industry landscape and we’re confident in our business model and our long term outlook. In closing, I would like to thank our more than 60,000 dedicated associates for all their efforts, which drive our company’s success. It is their passion to succeed and satisfy our customers that enables us to continue to do more for and with our customers wherever, whenever and however they wish to interact with us. Thank you for listening today and for your continued interest in Bed Bath & Beyond. Sue, Janet and Ken Frankel will be here tonight to answer any of your questions. Thank you. End of Q&A: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.