Bed Bath & Beyond shares plummet after company warns of potential bankruptcy

What Bed Bath and Beyond's bankruptcy warning could mean for meme stocks

Bed Bath & Beyond warned Thursday it’s running out of cash and is considering bankruptcy.

The retailer, citing worse-than-expected sales, issued a “going concern” warning that in the upcoming months it likely will not have the cash to cover expenses, such as lease agreements or payments to suppliers. Bed Bath said it is exploring financial options, such as restructuring, seeking additional capital or selling assets, in addition to a potential bankruptcy.

Shares of the company fell about 30% to close the day at $1.69 after Bed Bath issued the updates in a pair of financial filings. The stock earlier touched a 52-week low earlier in the day. Its market value has fallen to about $149 million as of Thursday’s close.

A Bed Bath & Beyond store is seen on June 29, 2022 in Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Still, CEO Sue Gove said the retailer is focused on rebuilding the business and making sure its brands, Bed Bath & Beyond, Buybuy Baby and Harmon, “remain destinations of choice for customers well into the future.”

Among its challenges, Bed Bath said it is having trouble getting enough merchandise to fill its shelves and is drawing fewer customers to its stores and website.

The retailer also said it wasn’t able to refinance a portion of its debt, less than a month after notifying investors it planned to borrow more in order to pay off chunks of existing obligations.

Bed Bath’s debt load has been weighing on the company. The retailer has nearly $1.2 billion in unsecured notes, which have maturity dates spread across 2024, 2034 and 2044. In recent quarters, Bed Bath has warned it’s been quickly burning through cash.

Bed Bath’s notes have all been trading below par, a sign of financial distress. 

Stalled turnaround

Bed Bath has been through an especially tumultuous stretch, with the departure of its CEO and other top executives, companywide layoffs, store closures and an overhaul of its merchandise strategy. As sales declined, its CEO Mark Tritton got pushed out in June. Gove, who stepped in as interim CEO, has assumed the role permanently.

She laid out a comeback strategy in late August. As part of the plan, she said the company would cut costs by shrinking its store footprint and workforce. Gove said it would add back more items from popular national brands, as it shifted away from an aggressive private label strategy. And she said it had secured more than $500 million in new financing to help steady the business.

The company said during its last earnings report it believed it had enough liquidity to forge ahead.

In a news release Thursday, Gove said recent sales results illustrate why that turnaround plan is so important.

“Transforming an organization of our size and scale requires time, and we anticipate that each coming quarter will build on our progress,” she said.

The company is also looking for a chief financial officer after executive Gustavo Arnal died by suicide in September.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.

Mounting losses

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