Below is the transcript of the webcast of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call held on Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 5:00 PM ET.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) and subsidiaries operates a chain of 1,512 retail stores across the United States including Canada and with partners in Mexico. The company sells a wide assortment of domestic merchandise and home furnishings through direct in-stores, websites, and mobile platforms. The company is included in the S&P 500 and Global 1200 Indices and the NASDAQ-100 Index. It is counted among the Fortune 500 and the Forbes Global 2000.
Participants:
Company Executives
Janet M. Barth, Vice President Investor Relations
Susan E. Lattmann, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Steven H. Temares, Chief Executive Officer
Operator
Welcome to the Bed Bath & Beyond’s Third Quarter of Fiscal 2014 Results Conference Call. All participants are in listen-only mode for the duration of the call. This conference is being recorded. A rebroadcast of this conference will be available beginning on Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 6:30 pm ET on Saturday, January 10, 2015. To access the rebroadcast, you may dial 888-843-7419 with a pass code ID of 38655099. At this time it is my pleasure to turn the conference over to Janet M. Barth, Vice President Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Janet M. Barth, Vice President Investor Relations
Thank you, Jeanette. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today for our earnings call to review our Third Quarter of Fiscal 2014 results. I am joined by Steven Temares, Bed Bath & Beyond’s Chief Executive Officer and Sue Lattmann, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements including statements about or references to our internal models and our long-term objectives. All such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we say during the call today. Please refer to our most recent periodic SEC filings for more detail on these risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as events or circumstances may change after this call.
Our earnings press release dated January 8, 2015 can be found in the investor relations section of website www.bedbathandbeyond.com. For those of you who might not have had a chance to read the press release here are some highlights. Our Third Quarter of Fiscal 2014 net earnings per diluted share were $1.23 which includes approximately $0.04 per diluted share of net benefits for certain non-recurring items, including credit card fee litigation.
Third Quarter net sales were $2.9 billion an increase of approximately 2.7% over the prior year period. Comparable sales, increased by approximately 1.7% in the Third Quarter. For the Fourth Quarter 2014, our model continues to show net earnings per diluted share in the range of approximately $1.78 to $1.83. We are now modeling full year net earnings per diluted share of approximately $5.05 to $5.09 which reflects our Third Quarter actual results and our current Fourth Quarter model.
Later in the call, Sue will discuss our Third Quarter financial results in more detail as well provide an update on our modeling assumptions for the Fourth Quarter of Fiscal 2014 and some preliminary thoughts regarding Fiscal 2015, but first let me turn the call over to Steve.
Steven H. Temares, Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Janet. And again welcome to Bed Bath & Beyond. We’re thrilled that you’ve joined us. And to our listeners good afternoon and I would like to wish everyone a healthy and Happy New Year.
The retail environment is ever changing and Bed Bath & Beyond has more than 43 years of experience navigating the challenges of this competitive and dynamic industry. This past holiday season reflects this continuing evolution in retailing as we saw more customers interact with us online and through their mobile devices than ever before.
