For vocal Bed Bath & Beyond bear Anthony Chukumba, the recent gyrations in Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock — despite the retailer being on the brink of bankruptcy — underscore the necessity for people to spice up their financial literacy.
“It’s a living, respiration example of the necessity for financial literacy education in the US,” the Loop Capital analyst said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “I mean, Bed Bath & Beyond goes to go bankrupt.”
Bed Bath & Beyond finished Friday’s session down 30% in one other day of volatile trading for the meme crowd favorite. On the week, shares surged an eye-popping 179%.
The wild upward price motion occurred after Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t utter the world “bankruptcy” on its otherwise brutal Tuesday morning earnings release. The shortage of a bankruptcy announcement appeared to embolden bulls within the stock, causing bears — specifically short-sellers — to quickly cover their shorts, only creating more upward momentum within the stock.
Then, on Friday, the Latest York Times reported that retail-focused private equity shop Sycamore Partners was kicking the tires on buying parts of the near-death home goods seller.
“As is our practice, we don’t comment on speculation of this nature,” a Bed Bath & Beyond spokesperson told Yahoo Finance via email.
In any case, to Chukumba’s point, investors who drill down into Bed Bath & Beyond’s fundamentals with their evaluation tools of alternative would find that the numbers clearly don’t justify a 135% stock gain in every week.
“The indisputable fact that the stock is up since they reported earnings is nonsensical, in a word, quite frankly,” Chukumba added. “Once they file [for bankruptcy], the equity can be worthless.”
A painful lesson can be learned by some if that happens.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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