A pedestrian walks by a Bed Bath and Beyond store in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.
Verizon — Verizon shares slipped 1.51% after the company posted mixed results for the 2022 fourth quarter. While earnings met analyst predictions, forward earnings fell short of a Refinitiv consensus estimate. .
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Bed Bath & Beyond — The meme stock gained 5.78%, building on its dramatic start to the year, even as the retailer warns of a potential bankruptcy. Year to date, Bed Bath & Beyond shares are up 17.1%.
Lyft — The ride-sharing stock gained 3.4% following an upgrade from KeyBanc, which Lyft should feel positive impacts from cost-saving measures including layoffs and a stabilization in demand.
Johnson & Johnson — Shares of the drug maker ticked higher by less than 1% premarket after the company reported mixed quarterly financial results. Johnson & Johnson beat profit estimates by 10 cents per share, excluding items, according to Refinitiv. It also missed revenue estimates. Its full-year outlook for earnings was slightly higher than estimates while its revenue forecast was about in line with estimates.
Blackstone — Shares rose 1.3% after JPMorgan upgraded Blackstone to overweight from neutral, saying the investment management firm is a “best in class” business that’s set for a soft landing.
Lululemon — The athleisure retailer fell 2.07% after Bernstein downgraded the stock, warning that a reset is coming for the apparel stock and noting the company is facing an inflection point in its growth.
Lockheed Martin — Lockheed Martin shares gained 1.52% after the company posted latest quarterly results. The defense company’s revenue came in at $18.99 billion, topping a Refinitiv forecast of $18.27 billion. Lockheed’s earnings per share also topped expectations.
AMD — The chip stock fell more than 2% in premarket after Bernstein downgraded the chipmaker to market perform from outperform. The Wall Street firm said the downgrade is due to the sliding computer and new parts demand in the inflationary environment.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring, Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel and Sarah Min contributed reporting
A “Store Closing” banner on a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Farmingdale, New York, on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.
Johnny Milano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A group of highly speculative stocks rallied double digits on Wednesday as retail investors pushed meme names up again in the new year following a dismal 2022.
Bed Bath & Beyond rallied a whopping 50% to trigger the trend in morning trading Wednesday. Shares of GameStop, the original star of 2021’s meme stock mania, climbed more than 10%. AMC Entertainment soared 18%.
Meme stocks rallying one more time
Stock
Short interest % float
Wed. Gain
% off 52W high
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY)
48.9%
60%
-89%
AMC (AMC)
21%
15%
-78%
GameStop (GME)
21%
8%
-62%
Source: FactSet
The rally in Bed Bath & Beyond was initially triggered by news that it would lay off more employees in an attempt to reduce costs and stay in business.
The home goods retailer told employees that it is eliminating the chief transformation officer role, which is held by Anu Gupta, on the same day it reported disappointing fiscal third-quarter results. Bed Bath & Beyond is approaching a potential bankruptcy, as its sales decline and losses grow.
“We don’t love the strength in nonsense stocks like AMC, CVNA, GME, BBBY, PRTY, etc.,” said Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge. “This just means people are blindly chasing.”
During early 2021, a band of retail traders joined forces on social media to bid up a slew of heavily shorted stocks, creating massive short squeezes that inflicted high pain on short sellers. These meme stocks experienced big pullbacks last year when risk sentiment shifted amid aggressive rate hikes. GameStop fell 50% in 2022, while AMC tumbled 75% and Bed Bath & Beyond plunged 82%.
While the short interest in these names has come down from its peak after the jaw-dropping episode, it still remains much higher than average.
About 48% of Bed Bath & Beyond’s float shares are sold short, compared with an average of 5% short interest in a typical U.S. stock, according to S3 Partners. For GameStop, the short interest stands at 21%, down from more than 100% at the height of the meme stock mania in 2021, according to FactSet. AMC has also 21% of shares sold short.
A short squeeze happens when a stock jumps sharply higher, it forces short sellers to buy back shares in order to limit their losses. The short covering tends to fuel the stock’s rally further.
Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday.
Walmart — Shares of retailer Walmart jumped more than 7% after reporting quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations and raising its forward guidance. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.50 on $152.81 billion in revenue, where analysts expected adjusted earnings per share of $1.32 and $147.75 billion in revenue, per Refinitiv.
Retail stocks — Retail stocks rose following Walmart and Home Depot‘s stronger-than-expected financial reports for the third quarter. Home Depot rose 1%, while Target shares rallied more than 3%. Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond added roughly 3%. Macy’s and Nordstrom advanced about 5% and 3%, respectively.
Taiwan Semiconductor — Shares of the Taiwanese chipmaker soared more than 12% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway built a $4 billion new stake in the company. Berkshire added more than 60 million shares of the Taiwanese chipmaker’s American depositary receipts, by the end of the third quarter, making Taiwan Semi the conglomerate’s 10th biggest holding at the end of September.
Paramount Global — Shares of the media company jumped more than 9% after a filing revealed that Berkshire Hathaway increased its holding to $1.7 billion at the end of the third quarter. Paramount is still down more than 30% this year as it suffered from cord cutting and a drop in advertising revenue.
Louisiana-Pacific — The lumber maker saw its stock jump more than 10% after Omaha-based Berkshire took new positions in the company last quarter. The conglomerate’s stake was worth $297 million at the end of September.
Bath & Body Works — Bath and Body Works rose 4% after an SEC filing revealed that Dan Loeb’s Third Point bought $265 million in the retailer’s stock in the third quarter.
Netflix — The streaming giant added 3.8% after Bank of America double-upgraded the stock to a buy from underperform. He said the new ad tier and crackdown on password sharing could help the stock’s value increase 23.6%.
Fulcrum Therapeutics — Shares of the biotechnology company gained 8.6% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stock as a buy and said it could see an upside of 61.5% if its main experimental drugs kept performing well.
Vodafone — Vodafone’s stock dropped 6.8% after the company cut its earnings guidance and cash flow forecast. The mobile operator cited a challenging economic environment.
Getty Images — Getty Images’ stock plummeted 12% after revenue for the recent quarter missed Wall Street’s expectations.
Albemarle — Shares of the lithium miner dropped 6%. Rumors that an unnamed Chinese cathode manufacturer was cutting its production targets was putting pressure on U.S. lithium stocks, according to FactSet.
Signature Bank — Shares of the crypto bank jumped more than 10% after Signature reported minimal exposure to FTX and any potential destruction that could come from its collapse. Signature said it has only a deposit relationship with the exchange — it does not lend crypto or invest in it on behalf of clients — representing less than 0.1% of its overall deposits.
Mobileye Global — The autonomous vehicle systems software company rallied 4% after Baird initiated coverage of the stock with an outperform rating. Analyst Luke Junk called Mobileye a market leader, writing, “Net, we recommend purchase/would lean into any volatility, for this premier franchise/longer-term optionality.”
Sunnova Energy — Shares of solar company rose 7.5% after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of Sunnova Energy, First Solar and Enphase Energy with buy ratings. First Solar was up 3.2%, and Enphase Energy rose 2%.
Capital One Financial — The regional bank’s stock sank 5% after it was downgraded by Bank of America to neutral from buy. Analyst Mihir Bhatia also cut his price target to $113 per share from $124.
Carnival — Shares of the cruise operator rose 6% after another report hinted inflation could be slowing. Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line were also higher, up 4.9% and 2.5% respectively.
Chinese stocks — Chinese companies listed on the U.S. stock market rose following President Joe Biden’s meeting with China President Xi Jinping and despite disappointing retail sales data. Tencent Music Entertainment, which also posted beats on the top and bottom lines,soared about 30%. Alibaba rose roughly 12%. Pinduoduo and Baidu both rallied about 10%, and JD.com rose nearly 8%.
— CNBC’s Yun Li, Carmen Reinicke, Alex Harring, Samantha Subin and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting.
SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 08: Customers enter a GameStop store on December 08, 2021 in San Rafael, California. Video game retailer GameStop will report third quarter earnings today after the closing bell. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
GameStop said Wednesday that quarterly sales declined and losses widened, as it burned through cash and inventory swelled.
The video game retailer also disclosed a new partnership with crypto exchange FTX.
Shares of the company rose about 10% in after hours trading.
In the second fiscal quarter ended July 30, the company’s total sales dropped to $1.14 billion from $1.18 billion in the year-ago period. Its losses widened to $108.7 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $61.6 million, or 21 cents, a year prior.
GameStop’s results cannot be compared with estimates because too few analysts cover the company. It did not provide a financial outlook and hasn’t provided one since the start of the pandemic.
The brick-and-mortar retailer is trying to adapt its business to a digital world. It’s gotten new leadership, including board chair Ryan Cohen, the founder of Chewy and former activist investor for Bed Bath & Beyond, and CEO Matt Furlong, an Amazon veteran. It’s also looked to new ways to make money, including nonfungible tokens.
But the company has struggled to drive profits, leading it to trim costs and shake up leadership. Last month, it fired chief financial officer Mike Recupero and laid off employees across departments. Accounting chief Diana Jajeh stepped in as the company’s new CFO.
Furlong urged patience on an investor call on Wednesday, saying GameStop must go through a significant transformation to keep up with customers.
“Our path to becoming a more diversified and tech-centric business is one that obviously carries risk and will take time,” he said. “This said, we believe GameStop is a much stronger business than it was 18 months ago.”
GameStop’s new initiatives have come at a high cost. It had $908.9 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter — a little more than half of what it had at the end of the year-ago period.
Inventory ballooned to $734.8 million at the close of the quarter. That’s up from $596.4 million at the close of the prior year’s second quarter. The company said in a release that it intentionally bulked up on merchandise to keep up with customer demand and cope with supply chain challenges.
Furlong said on the call that the company had to spend money to modernize its business after years of underinvestment. Among its moves, it hired more than 600 people with talent in areas such as blockchain while it reduced shipping times, so customers get purchases in one to three days.
Changing it up
Now, he said, the company is focused on new priorities: becoming profitable, launching proprietary products and investing in its stores. He said it is lowering costs, too. Expenses decreased by 14% from the first quarter of the year, including some reductions that came from the layoffs.
“We’re going to retain a strong focus on cost containment and continue promoting an ownership mentality across the organization,” he said.
As overall sales fell, he pointed to growth of newer businesses. GameStop launched an NFT marketplace in July, which is open to the public for beta testing. It allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets, including the recently launched GameStop Wallet, so they can buy, sell and trade NFTs for virtual goods.
Sales attributable to collectibles rose from $177.2 million in the prior year’s second quarter to $223.2 million in the most recent one.
NFTs trade on FTX, the retailer’s new partner. “In addition to collaborating with FTX on new ecommerce and online marketing initiatives, GameStop will begin carrying FTX gift cards in select stores,” GameStop said in a release.
FTX was founded by billionaire former Wall Street trader Sam Bankman-Fried, 30. He has become a lender of last resort for crypto firms that have struggled as the assets have declined sharply since late last year.
The agreement with FTX appears to play into GameStop’s status as a meme stock.
The company’s shares have seen sharp fluctuations in value. Over the past year, shares have swung from $19.39 to $63.92. The company’s stock is down about 36% so far this year, bringing the company’s value to $7.31 billion.
Even as the company pivots more to e-commerce, Furlong said that stores remain an important way to connect with customers and to fulfill online orders.
GameStop rolled out a new compensation model for U.S. store leaders, he said. Each store leader can get $21,000 in stock, which vests over three years. They can also get additional pay through company stock on a quarterly basis, depending on their performance.
It is also raising hourly pay for some store employees, but he did not share the specific wage.
A pedestrian walks by a Bed Bath and Beyond store in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were down in premarket trading Tuesday after the struggling retailer’s chief financial officer died over the weekend.
The stock was down more than 15% as investors weighed the company’s leadership crisis after Gustavo Arnal’s death. Arnal died Friday after falling from a building in downtown Manhattan, police said. The city’s medical examiner’s office later ruled the death a suicide.
The loss comes after the company recently eliminated some executive positions, including chief operating officer, as part of its efforts to win back investor confidence and customers. It is also looking for a permanent CEO. Bed Bath & Beyond is operating under an interim chief executive, Sue Gove, after the company’s former leader, Mark Tritton, was ousted by the board in June.
The New Jersey-based company last week announced that it had secured more than $500 million in new financing, including a loan. It also laid out a series of moves aimed at reviving the business, including the closure of about 150 stores, layoffs and an overhaul of its merchandise strategy.
Arnal joined Bed Bath & Beyond in 2020 from London-based cosmetics company Avon after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble.
In a statement Sunday regarding his death, Bed Bath & Beyond said that Arnal “was instrumental in guiding the organization throughout the coronavirus pandemic.”
If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
— CNBC’s Melissa Repko and MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this report.
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Lululemon (LULU) – Lululemon rallied 9.5% in the premarket after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and issuing an upbeat outlook. The athletic apparel and leisurewear maker said it continues to see strong sales momentum.
Broadcom (AVGO) – Broadcom rose 2% in premarket trading after quarterly earnings and revenue exceeded analyst forecasts. The chip maker also issued a stronger-than-expected revenue forecast for the current quarter. CEO Hock Tan said Broadcom expected strong demand across all its end markets to continue this quarter.
Starbucks (SBUX) – Starbucks named Laxman Narasimhan as its new chief executive officer. Narasimhan was most recently CEO of Lysol and Enfamil maker Reckitt Benckiser, and has served in executive positions at PepsiCo. Narasimhan will join Starbucks on October 1 as incoming CEO and take over for interim CEO Howard Schultz in April 2023.
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) – The housewares retailer’s stock slid 5.5% in premarket trading, setting it up for a possible fourth straight negative session. Bed Bath & Beyond – popular among “meme stock” traders – unveiled a number of steps on Wednesday designed to shore up its finances.
PagerDuty (PD) – PagerDuty shares jumped 5.8% in premarket action following a better-than-expected quarterly report and strong guidance. The operations management software company saw a 7.1% increase in total paid customers compared with a year earlier and a 37.5% surge in the number of customers providing annual recurring revenue exceeding $100,000.
Shell (SHEL) – Shell CEO Ben van Beurden is preparing to step down next year, after nearly a decade in that job, according to two company sources who spoke to Reuters. The sources say the energy producer has identified four candidates to succeed van Beurden. Shell gained 1.4% in off-hours trading.
Beyond Meat (BYND) – Investment firm Baillie Gifford reported a 6.61% stake in the maker of plant-based meat alternatives as of August 31, compared with a 13.38% stake on December 31, 2021. Beyond Meat rose 1% in the premarket.
Rocket Lab USA (RKLB) – The space rocket company’s stock added 2.9% in premarket action after successfully test firing a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time. The Rutherford engine is a liquid propellant rocket engine designed and manufactured by Rocket Lab.
Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday:
Cisco Systems — Shares of the networking equipment producer jumped 5.8%. The company reported earnings after the bell on Wednesday that beat estimates. Cisco also provided a better-than-expected forecast for 2023.
Bed Bath & Beyond — The latest favored meme stock, which has surged in August, dropped over 20%. Investors appeared to be reacting to activist investor Ryan Cohen’s filing that he intends to sell his entire stake in the company.
Kohl’s — Kohl’s shares sank about 5% after the retailer slashed its financial forecast for the year, citing inflation pressures on middle-income customers. The company expects net sales in fiscal 2022 down 5% to 6%, down from a prior range of flat to up 1%. However, Kohl’s beat analysts’ expectations for fiscal second-quarter profit and revenue.
BJ’s Wholesale — Shares of the club retailer popped more than 7% on Thursday after BJ’s reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter. The company generated $1.06 in adjusted earnings per share on $5.01 billion of revenue. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting 80 cents per share on $4.67 billion of revenue. The company’s comparable sales rose 7.6% year over year, excluding gasoline. BJ’s was also upgraded by Bank of America to a buy from neutral.
Elanco Animal Health — Shares of Elanco shed more than 3% after the company was downgraded by Morgan Stanley. The firm shifted the stock to equal weight from overweight citing concerns about future profits.
Verizon — Shares of Verizon slipped 2.7% after MoffettNathanson downgraded it to underperform and slashed its price target. Increased competition from AT&T and T-Mobile is weighing on Verizon and will likely drag shares lower, analysts said.
Canadian Solar — The solar equipment and services company hit a new 52-week high, popping nearly 18%, after reporting quarterly profits that beat expectations. Canadian Solar also raised its full-year revenue forecast and reported solar module shipments that were at the high end of its forecast.
Wolfspeed — Shares surged more than 27% after the semiconductor company surpassed expectations in its most recent earnings report. Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe said he remains “very encouraged about the industry’s prospects for future growth and the activity we are seeing across our end-markets.”
Walgreens Boots Alliance — Shares of Walgreens fell more than 5% in midday trading. The drugstore chain, along with CVS and Walmart, was ordered Wednesday by a federal judge to pay a combined $650.6 million to two Ohio counties to address damage done by the opioid crisis. Walgreens also announced Wednesday it had sold 11 million shares of Option Care Health’s common stock in an underwritten secondary offering.
Energy stocks — Energy stocks were buoyed by the rise in oil prices, with shares of Devon Energy rising more than 3%. Halliburton jumped 4%, and APA added more than 5%. Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum and both gained about 2%.
—CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Carmen Reinicke and Sarah Min contributed reporting.
Exterior view of a Walmart store on August 23, 2020 in North Bergen, New Jersey
VIEW press | Corbis News | Getty Images
Walmart confirmed on Wednesday that it has begun to lay off corporate employees about a week after the company slashed its profit outlook and warned consumers had pulled back on discretionary spending due to inflation.
In a statement to CNBC, the retail giant described the layoffs as a way to “better position the company for a strong future.”
Anne Hatfield, a Walmart spokesperson, declined to say how many workers will be affected and what divisions have experienced cuts. She said Walmart is still hiring in parts of its business that are growing, including supply chain, e-commerce, health and wellness and advertising sales.
“Shoppers are changing. Customers are changing,” she said. “We are doing some restructuring to make sure we’re aligned.”
The corporate layoffs were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Walmart is the largest employer in the country with nearly 1.6 million workers in the U.S. The company, seen as a bellwether for the nation’s economy, spooked investors last week when it cut its outlook for quarterly and full-year profit guidance. That warning had a chilling effect on the retail sector, dragging down the stocks of companies including Macy’s and Amazon and sending up a flare about the health of the American consumer.
Walmart said at the time that as shoppers spent more on necessities like groceries and fuel, they were skipping over high-margin merchandise like apparel. It said it would have to cut prices to sell more of those items, especially as a glut of inventory piled up in its stores and at those of competitors like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond.
Later that same week, Best Buy cut its profit and sales forecast, saying it was seeing softening demand for consumer electronics — big-ticket, discretionary purchases that some shoppers can postpone.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
Prime Day prices may not be Amazon’s best-ever offer
Just because something is discounted on Prime Day doesn’t mean it’s the best deal you’ll see anywhere, or even all year.
Naturally, Amazon will offer the best prices on its own gear like the Kindle, Fire TV streamer and private-labelclothing. For example, the e-commerce giant is already advertising a 24-inch Fire TV for only $90, nearly half the retail price, while other early deals include up to 55% off the second-generation Echo Show, Kindle Paperwhite and Eero Mesh Wi-Fi routers.
Keep in mind that some items will be reduced further down the road. Prices on mattresses and outdoor furniture are likely to be lower around Labor Day, toys get marked down the most on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and TVs generally hit their lowest price point ahead of Super Bowl Sunday.
Even Amazon is looking beyond its own Prime Day with a second sales event now slated for the fall.
Competing sale events are upping the ante
Other bargains are not exclusive to Amazon at all. Walmart, Target and Best Buy, among others, are holding competing deals events — as they have in previous years — to coincide with Amazon Prime Day 2022.
This time, Target’s 72-hour “Deal Days” kicks off earlier and runs for longer, starting on July 11, one day ahead of Prime Day. Plus, Target will price match select Prime Day deals and take an additional 5% off for RedCard members.
“Every year, they become a little bit more competitive,” Burrow said.
Also expect to find equally worthwhile deals at Walmart on kitchen appliances, vacuums and Nintendo Switch accessories, he said, and count on Best Buy to compete on electronics and Apple devices.
Meanwhile, other retailers, including Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, Overstock, Samsung and Saks Fifth Avenue, will offer their own major markdowns, according to Rakuten’s retail and shopping expert Kristen Gall.
How to make sure you’re getting the best deals
To find the lowest prices overall, start crunching the numbers now, advised Kristin McGrath, a shopping expert at RetailMeNot.
Price trackers are the easiest way to monitor just how good a deal really is, especially for big-ticket items.
Kristin McGrath
shopping expert at RetailMeNot
McGrath recommends a price-tracking browser extension like Camelcamelcamel or Keepa to keep an eye on price changes and get price-drop alerts. “Price trackers are the easiest way to monitor just how good a deal really is, especially for big-ticket items,” she said.
At some retailers, you can even stack deals by using a promo code or digital coupon and then pay with a rewards credit card for extra savings, said Rakuten’s Gall.
Kohl’s is terminating talks to sell its business to The Vitamin Shoppe owner Franchise Group, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.
The people requested anonymity because a decision from Kohl’s has not been publicly announced.
Representatives from Kohl’s and Franchise Group didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
This decision from Kohl’s comes as its stock price slumps and its sales decline. It has faced months of pressure from activist investors to pursue a sale and shake up the business with a new slate of board directors. It wasn’t immediately clear what path Kohl’s would take next.
Financing such a deal has also become more difficult due to volatility in the stock market and broader economy, as the Federal Reserve jacks up interest rates to counter surging inflation. Walgreens Boots Alliance earlier this week scrapped its plan to sell its U.K. pharmacy chain, Boots, saying no third party was able to make an adequate offer due to turmoil in the global financial markets.
Franchise Group had been weighing lowering its bid for Kohl’s to closer to $50 per share from about $60, CNBC reported last week, citing a person familiar with the matter. The shift in thinking came as the outlook for the retail industry grew increasingly grim, the person said, as fears of a recession mounted.
Franchise Group in early June proposed a bid of $60 per share to acquire Kohl’s at a roughly $8 billion valuation. The two companies then entered an exclusive three-week window during which they can firm up any due diligence and final financing arrangements. That ran its course this past weekend.
Kohl’s shares closed Thursday at $35.69. At one point during the day the stock touched a 52-week low of $34.33. Kohl’s ended the day with a market valuation of roughly $4.6 billion, its shares down about 28% so far this year.
Kohl’s earlier this year received a per-share offer of $64 from Starboard-backed Acacia Research, but it deemed the bid to be too low.
Activist firm Macellum Advisors has been pushing for Kohl’s to consider a sale or consider other strategic alternatives since January. Macellum was also arguing for Kohl’s to revamp its slate of directors, arguing the retailer, under Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass, has underperformed in recent years compared with its peers.
Macellum didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In mid-May, however, Kohl’s shareholders voted to reelect the company’s current slate of 13 board directors, thereby defeating Macellum’s proposal.
In recent weeks, the outlook for the retail industry has grown bleaker as consumers pull back their spending on certain discretionary categories, such as home goods and apparel, amid inflation and the threat of an economic slowdown.
High-end furniture chain RH on Wednesday cut its forecast for revenue in fiscal 2022, anticipating softer consumed demand for its products in the back half of the year. Bed Bath & Beyond saw its sales plummet in its most recent quarter and ousted its CEO.
Companies are also seeing inventories pile up as shipments of goods arrive later than planned, due to supply chain snags. Big-box retailer Target in early June warned investors that its profits will take a short-term hit, as it marks down unwanted items, cancels orders and takes aggressive steps to get rid of extra inventory.
Kohl’s sales for the three-month period ended April 30 fell to $3.72 billion from $3.89 billion in 2021. When it reported these figures in mid-May, the retailer also slashed its profit and revenue forecasts for the full fiscal year, further muddying the picture for a potential deal.
