Earnings Labs

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 7, 2016

$4.81

+1.37%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Bed Bath & Beyond's Fourth Quarter of Fiscal Year 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 beginning on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at 6.30 PM Eastern Time through 6.30 PM Eastern Time on Friday, April 8, 2016. To access the rebroadcast, you may dial 888-843-7419 with the passcode ID of 41999782. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the conference over to Janet Barth, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Janet Barth

President

Thank you, Adrianne, 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'd 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 April 6, 2016 can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.bedbathandbeyond.com. Here are some highlights from our financial results. Fourth quarter net earnings per diluted share were $1.91, an increase of approximately 6.1% over the prior year period including approximately $0.06 per diluted share of a net benefit from certain non-recurring items. Net sales for the quarter were approximately $3.4 billion, an increase of approximately 2.4% or 2.8% on a constant currency basis. Quarterly comparable sales increased approximately 1.7% or 2.1% on a constant currency basis. Fiscal 2015 net earnings per diluted share were $5.10 including approximately $0.06 per diluted share of a net benefit from certain non-recurring items. Net sales for the full year were approximately $12.1 billion, an increase of approximately 1.9% or 2.3% on a constant currency basis. And full year comparable sales increased approximately 1% or 1.4% on a constant currency basis. In addition, our Board of Directors today authorized a dividend program and declared an initial quarterly dividend of $0.125 per share to be paid on July 19, 2016 to shareholders of record as of June 17, 2016. As we know, retailing is experiencing dynamic change as technology impacts the way consumers are able to make shopping decisions and purchase services and products. Today's call will include a detailed discussion by Steve regarding the steps we've taken to transform our business to succeed in this evolving retail environment. Then Sue will review our quarterly financial results and provide some modeling assumptions for fiscal 2016 as well as some high level comments regarding fiscal 2017. I'll now turn the call over to Steve.

Steven Temares

Management

Thank you, Janet, and good afternoon everyone. We are pleased to have completed another successful year. Our fiscal 2015 financial performance reflects the benefit of the significant investments in our business, steady progress on our strategic initiatives, and the return of more than $1.1 billion to our shareholders through share repurchase. As Janet highlighted, we reported fiscal 2015 net earnings per diluted share of $5.10 including a $0.06 net benefit for certain non-recurring items. Excluding this benefit, we were at $5.04, which marks the fourth year in a row that we've been in this $4.5 to just over $5 range since we entered a heavy investment phase several years ago, and we believe we can again achieve earnings per share at the high end of this range this year, and in the event our comp is higher than the 1% to 2% range we're modeling, exceed it. Over the past few years we have driven change throughout our organization to capitalize on advancing technologies. We have made tremendous progress in the transformation of our company to better serve our customers in an ever-evolving digital world. At the same time our strategy remains rooted in our customer-centric culture and commitment to customer service to do more with our customers wherever, whenever, and however they wish to interact with us. To provide our customers a seamless experience whether they interact with us in a store, through one of our contact centers on a desktop, tablet, smartphone or through social media, and to be viewed as the expert to the home including the accompanying life stages that make us has a home such as getting married, having a baby, transitioning to college, and moving to a new residence to become the destination for our customers' needs and wants as they express their life…

Susan Lattmann

Management

Thanks, Steve. I'll start with our fourth quarter results. Net sales for the quarter were approximately $3.4 billion, up about 2.4% over last year or approximately 2.8% on a constant currency basis. Comp sales for the quarter increased approximately 1.7% or 2.1% on a constant currency basis, reflecting an increase in the average transaction amount and a slight increase in the number of transactions. These results were at the upper end of the model range we provided back in January which was between relatively flat and an increase of 2%. Comp sales from our customer-facing digital channels grew in excess of 25%, while comp sales from our stores were relatively flat. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was approximately 38.6%, down about 110 basis points from last year. The decrease is primarily due to a decrease in merchandize margin. Also contributing were increases in net direct to customer shipping expense and work downs. For the year, the gross margin deleverage was less than it was in 2014, which is consistent with our model. SG&A for the fourth quarter was approximately 24% of net sales as compared to 23.8% last year. This increase as a percentage of net sales was due to in order to magnitude technology-related expenses including depreciation and advertising expense, due in part to the growth in digital advertising partially offset by a favorable net benefit of approximately 50 basis points from certain non-recurring items, including a favorable state audit settlement. Net interest expense for the quarter was approximately $24.5 million and related primarily to interest from our debt. Our income tax rate for the quarter was approximately 36% which was in-line with our modelled assumptions back in January versus 37.4% last year. The tax rate decreased about 140 basis points as the current quarter includes about $7…

Steven Temares

Management

Thank you, Sue. First of all, thank you for taking the time to listen to our call. To summarize, we believe we are making the right investments to position our company for long-term success. Over the past several years, we have been transforming our company and created an incredible foundation for future growth. We are excited about the opportunities to do more for and with our customers and to strengthen our business as a world-class Omni-channel retailer. I want to thank our more than 60,000 dedicated associates to what they accomplished during fiscal 2015. Our foundation has never been stronger. This includes the quality of our people, our merchandize assortments and our technologies, each of which drives our company's success. To the commitment of our associates and the culture they have created and a greatly valued contribution to our merchandize and service providers, we are looking forward to continue to satisfy our customers, and in doing so, improving our competitive position in the categories in which we do business. Again, thank you for listening in today. After the call, Sue, Janet and Ken Frankel will be available to answer your questions. End of Q&A: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.