Bed Bath & Beyond stock was up about 15% so far this year near midday on Monday.
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The past month has been a wild ride for
Bed Bath & Beyond
investors, with the share price surging in response to what most people would consider bad news.
Since the home goods retailer said it was considering filing for bankruptcy in early January, the situation has quickly worsened.
The latest from the retailer is that it plans to close 87 Bed Bath stores and five buybuy Baby stores, as well as cutting all 50 Harmon locations, a company spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.
This is in addition to the 150 stores Bed Bath plans to close by the end of fiscal 2022, which ends in February, bringing the total number of projected store closures to 287. As of November, Bed Bath operated a total of 949 stores, including 762 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 137 buybuy Baby stores, according to its latest quarterly report.
You wouldn’t know that the chain is shrinking and at risk of bankruptcy by looking at the stock. The shares were up 13% to $2.87 near midday on Monday.
The company didn’t specify where the additional Bed Bath and buybuy Baby store closures would be. But previously announced closures range across the U.S., with a high concentration in California, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and New York.
The move comes just days after the company said in a regulatory filing that it had triggered “certain events of default” on its borrowings, prompting lenders to require immediate repayment, and that it didn’t have enough funds to pay.
At the time, the company said it continued to evaluate multiple options to shore up its finances. Those efforts include trying to secure a new loan or to sell off parts of the business, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal.
But with no buyer coming forward yet, it is only a matter of time before the retailer goes through with a bankruptcy filing, some experts say. S&P Global Ratings downgraded Bed Bath’s issuer credit rating to D from CC, saying it considers the company to be in default.
Investors don’t seem to share that line of thinking. Shares of Bed Bath were up 15% this year shortly after midday on Monday. The gain is surprising given that bankruptcy filings generally wipe out a significant chunk of a company’s value, playing out poorly for shareholders.
A possible explanation for the surge is renewed interest in the meme-stock trading frenzy. Retail traders have rallied behind the stock ever since the company first warned it could be headed toward bankruptcy.
Write to Sabrina Escobar at sabrina.escobar@barrons.com
Credit: marketwatch.com