Why The Year Ahead Looks Promising For Bed Bath & Beyond

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday and foot traffic analytics company said the home goods retailer could close 2020 as a winner.

What Happened: Bed Bath & Beyond reported a surprise profit in its fiscal second-quarter report along with its first positive comps since the end of fiscal 2016. The company could end 2020 on a high note despite a resurgence of COVID-19 infection rates across the U.S., according to Placer.ai.

In-store visits were down just 6.2% year-over-year in October, but a resurgence of COVID-19 infection rates resulted in a 17.8% year-over-year drop in traffic in November and a 15% year-over-year decrease in December. Total visits were down on average 13% a month in the last calendar quarter versus down 19.7% in the previous quarter.

Encouragingly, Bed Bath & Beyond may have recovered to pre-pandemic levels as foot traffic was down on average 12.3% in January and February. In fact, visits for the week beginning Dec. 21 were down just 7.4% year-over-year.

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Why It's Important: Bed Bath & Beyond ended calendar 2020 with an average visit duration increase of 9.8%, according to Placer.ai. This may suggest that the fall in foot traffic was partially offset by what could prove to be larger basket sizes and higher conversion rates.

Although too early to declare Bed Bath & Beyond a retail winner for 2021, the company showed strong momentum heading into the new year.

The stock was up more than 10% to $19.86 at publication time. Analysts estimate the company will report earnings of 20 cents per share on sales of $2.76 billion.