Malcolm Henry
Don’t look now, or maybe do, but Bed, Bath & Beyond stock is soaring. Like an undercover ‘to the moon’ movement is happening.
The big box strip mall staple sat back and watched its stock jump 80% yesterday to a pretty insane $27.32. Yeah… that can’t be right, or real. Hell even the CEO knows it, kinda.
“We’re not in it for the day by day, we’re in it for the long term,” Tritton said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “We’ve got a process to assess and evaluate really prudent spend to maximize shareholder value. Shares shooting up to $27.32? That’s a moment in time, not part of the overall plan to invest at those levels.”
CNBC dropped this nugget about eight graphs deep in their story, I’ll move it up for you:
The sudden spike was likely fueled by a so-called short squeeze, in which hedge funds that had bet against the stock were forced to scramble and buy back their shares to cut their losses.
Oh… hell… yes. Let’s get into another battle with shorters!
Additionally, Bed Bath & Beyond has been among the most heavily shorted stocks in the country (oRLY) with 27% of its shares available for trading sold short. According to FactSet, that is good enough (bad enough?) to be the third-highest short figure among the 1,500 largest U.S. stocks available.
The main media is trying to give it some better spin based on the timing of a few announcements.
According to CNBC: the company made a flurry of announcements, including the launch of a new digital marketplace, a tie-up with Kroger and leadership changes. Bed Bath & Beyond also said it expects to complete a $1 billion share repurchase plan by the end of fiscal 2021, two years ahead of schedule.
Would that be enough to shoot a typical stock up 80%? Not really.
Is everyone giving this a little side-eye? Probably yes.
BUT… who knows… these same people were all-in on SQUID crypto after all the red fvcking flags with that product.
Bed Bath, at least for its part, knows a little better.
“We’ve seen this a few times before, unfortunately … where we see these spikes and then a regrouping,” Tritton said. “We’re not going to waste our precious dollars and also the shareholders’ dollars.
“When things settle down, we will have the right share price to be able to purchase ahead of what we see is our three-year trajectory.”
HOLD THE LINE.
Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash
