Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) Q1 2017 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Welcome to the Bed Bath & Beyond's First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Adrienne, and I'll be your operator for today's call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I'll turn the call over to Janet Barth, Investor Relations. Janet Barth, you may begin.

Thank you, Adrienne, and good afternoon, everyone. Joining me on our call today are Steven Temares, Bed Bath & Beyond's Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors; Gene Castagna, Chief Operating Officer; and Sue Lattmann, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.

(Forward-looking Cautionary Statements) Our earnings press release dated June 22, 2017, can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.bedbathandbeyond.com.

Here are some highlights from our financial results. First quarter net earnings per diluted share were $0.53, including an unfavorable impact of approximately $0.05 from the adoption of the new share-based payment accounting standard.

Net sales for the quarter were approximately $2.7 billion, an increase of approximately 10 basis points compared to the prior year period. Quarterly comparable sales decreased approximately 2%. In addition, our Board of Directors today declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share to be paid on October 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of September 15, 2017.

I will now turn the call over to Sue, who will discuss our first quarter financial results in more detail. Steve will then provide an update on the progress of some of our strategic initiatives and our ongoing efforts to be our customer's first choice for the home and heartfelt life events by building and delivering a strong foundation of differentiated products, services and solutions while driving operational excellence. After our prepared remarks, we'll open up the call to questions.

I'll now turn the call over to Sue.

Thanks, Janet. I'll start with a review of our first quarter results. Our net sales were approximately $2.7 billion, an increase of approximately 10 basis points from the first quarter of last year, primarily due to an increase of 2.1% in noncomp sales, including PMall, One Kings Lane and new stores, largely offset by a 2% decrease in comp sales.

Our first quarter comps sales reflect a decrease in the number of transactions in stores, partially offset by an increase in the average transaction amount. As we often say, we believe in an integrated and seamless customer experience. And although we cannot tell you through which channel a sale was initiated, we can provide information based on where the sale was consummated.

As a reminder of how we reference certain omnichannel transactions, sales consummated on a mobile device while the customer is physically in a store location are referred to as customer-facing digital channels sales. Customer orders taken in store by an associate through the Beyond store, our proprietary web-based platform, I'll refer to as in-store sales. Customer orders reserved online and picked up in a store are also referred to as in-store sales, while purchases made online that are subsequently returned to a