Bed Bath&Beyond shares up on 1Q results

UNION, N.J. (AP) _ Home furnishings and appliance retailer Bed Bath&Beyond Inc. said Wednesday its fiscal first-quarter profit tumbled 27 percent, as costs outweighed sales growth.

The results beat Wall Street predictions, sending the company's shares up $1.16, or 7.6 percent, to $30.73 in aftermarket trading, after rising 27 cents to $28.57 in the regular session.

For the quarter ended May 31, Bed Bath&Beyond earned $76.8 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with $104.6 million, or 38 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2007.

Sales rose 6.1 percent to $1.65 billion from $1.55 billion in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 27 cents per share on $1.62 billion in revenue.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, rose 0.8 percent. Same-store sales is a key indicator of retailer performance because it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.