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Bed Bath and Beyond insiders snapped up shares of the home-goods retailer.
Erin Cadigan/Dreamstime.com
Everything but the kitchen sink has seemed to go wrong at
Bed Bath & Beyond
,
but the interim CEO and two directors have stepped up and bought shares of the home-furnishings retailer on the open market.
Activist investors had agitated for change at Bed Bath & Beyond (ticker: BBBY) three years ago, and Mark Tritton took the CEO post in late 2019. An alum of
Target
(
TGT
) and
Nordstrom
(JWN), Tritton told us in March 2021 that the company would transition from a turnaround story into “optimize and thrive mode.” At the time, Bed Bath & Beyond stock had rocketed eightfold over 12 months. Then supply-chain issues and renewed Covid-infection fears set in, and a few earnings misses later, shares ended 2021 with an 18% loss; the
S&P 500 index
surged 27% that year.
The underperformance continued into 2022, and as Covid restrictions lifted, more potential customers yearned to get beyond buying things for their bedrooms and bathrooms. After a disastrous second-quarter report, Tritton was out as CEO. Bed Bath & Beyond named director Sue Gove as interim CEO, noting her more than 30 years of experience in the retail industry. Bed Bath & Beyond stock has cratered 65% so far this year, compared with an 18% drop in the S&P 500. Apart from the worries that retail peers are facing, Bed Bath & Beyond is burning through its cash reserves.
Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t respond to a request to make any insider buyers available for comment.
Gove paid $230,500 on July 1 for 50,000 Bed Bath & Beyond shares, an average price of $4.61 each, according to a form she filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The president of Excelsior Advisors LLC, a retail consulting and advisory firm, Gove now owns 105,587 Bed Bath & Beyond shares. Gove last bought the stock on the open market in July 2020, when she paid $268,260 for 34,000 shares, an average price of $7.89.
Harriet Edelman, Bed Bath & Beyond’s independent chair, paid $49,400 on July 1 for 10,000 shares, an average price of $4.94 each. The vice chair of Emigrant Bank, Edelman now owns 73,789 shares. She last purchased the stock on the open market in November 2021, when she paid $250,500 for 12,500 shares, an average price of $19.90 each.
Bed Bath & Beyond director Jeffrey Kirwan paid $49,000 on July 1 for 10,000 shares, a per-share average price of $4.90. A former
Gap
(
GPS
) executive, Kirwan now owns 43,455 Bed Bath & Beyond shares. He last bought shares on the open market in November 2020, when he paid $10,000 for 500 shares, an average price of $19.94 each.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/bed-bath-beyond-stock-ceo-51657226434?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo