Bed Bath & Beyond Up 41% YTD: Will The Rally Continue In 2020?

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) has been gaining momentum, thanks to solid gains from its robust transformational efforts. Moreover, the company remains committed toward bolstering its omni-channel capabilities, including store-growth strategy and digital expansion. Also, Bed Bath & Beyond has been smoothly progressing toward accomplishing its financial targets including earnings per share growth in fiscal 2020.

Year to date, the retailer has gained 41.1% compared with the industry’s 12.1% rally. The stock has also comfortably outperformed the Retail-Wholesale sector’s 24.1% gain and the S&P 500 Index’s 27.8% growth.

Factors Behind Bed Bath & Beyond’s Growth Story

Bed Bath & Beyond’s solid Transformation Plan targets achieving four major near-term priorities — stabilize and boost top-line growth; reset the cost structure; review and optimize asset base with its portfolio of retail banners, and refine the organization structure. Moreover, updates on the aforesaid plan state that the company expects an aggressive inventory reduction of up to $1 billion over the next 18 months. This will help it to reset inventory faster in both stores and distribution centers. Also, its cost savings, reduction of corporate workforce and other short-term actions are projected to reduce cost by $10 million and bolster margins.

Delving into the company’s store-rationalization endeavors, Bed Bath & Beyond remains focused on expanding its store base and increasing the productivity of existing stores to drive top-line growth. As part of the plan, the company is remodeling stores into the Next Generation Lab stores, where different experiences and visual merchandising are expected to boost customer shopping experience. Simultaneously, it plans to shut underperforming stores over the next couple of years to yield the benefit of heavy lease expiration cadence. This move will increase the company’s sales and profitability, on a per-store basis.

Additionally, Bed Bath & Beyond has been making constant investments in its customer-facing digital platforms. It is also making significant improvements in the search and recommendation functionality of its site and mobile app. Management is planning to convert the Reserve Online Pickup In-Store capability to Buy Online Pickup In-Store to improve the experience as customers can quickly pick up purchased products from the store, with conveniences such as curbside pickup or lockers.

With that said, we expect the company’s aforementioned strategies to consistently drive its performance in 2020. A VGM Score of A coupled with an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 6.4% further highlights this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock’s potential.

3 Key Picks in Retail

Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) has an impressive long-term earnings growth rate of 12.2%. The company currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE:DKS) , which is also a Zacks Rank #1 stock, has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 6.5%.

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SBH) outpaced the earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 4.2%. The company currently has a Zacks Rank of 1.

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