Bed, Bath & More (BBBY) Shares extended declines Monday, pushing the meme stock favorite to its lowest level in three weeks, as investors continue to exit the troubled household goods retailer after last week’s $60 million sale by activist investor Ryan Cohen.
Cohen’s RC Ventures sold all hits of 9.45 million shares in Bed, Bath & Beyond last week, just months after putting three of these allies on the company’s board, raising about $60 million.
However, the timing of the sale has raised questions with some investors and could spark interest from the Securities and Exchange Commission given Cohen’s close proximity to management talks with “external financial advisors and lenders about strengthening our balance sheet.”
Just five months ago, Cohen urged the retailer to look at several strategic alternatives, including the sale of its lucrative buybuy Baby division, and urged the impeachment of CEO Mark Tritton, who left the group in June.
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Bloomberg News even reported this weekend that some deliveries from Bed, Bath & Beyond are limiting or halting shipments to the retailer after it fell behind on payments amid a broader cash flow tightness. Bed, Bath & Beyond said in June that comparable store sales in the May quarter were down 27% from last year, bringing total sales to just under $1.46 billion.
“From a fundamental standpoint, we believe trends at Bed, Bath & Beyond remain challenging, as evidenced by our fieldwork and our own KFL data and geolocation data,” said KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Bradley Thomas, who is an “underweight” trading position. with a price target of $2 on the stock. “We continue to forecast significant negative EBITDA, EPS and FCF for Bed, Bath & Beyond in 2022.”
Bed, Bath & Beyond shares were 9.4% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $9.98 apiece.
Recent data from S3 Partners suggests that short-term interest comprises about 52.5% of the outstanding shares of Bed, Bath & Beyond, with a bet against the retailer totaling more than $317 million.
Data from the Yolosocks.live website, which tracks real-time listings of stocks in Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets chat room, indicated that Bed, Bath & Beyond is now the most talked-about stock among users, with 55% activity over from yesterday to about 5,053 individual posts. GameStop is in second place with 1,175 posts.
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