Bed Bath & Beyond Announces CEO Is Leaving, as It Sharply Misses Quarterly Expectations

Bed Bath & Beyondon Wednesday announced that its CEO Mark Tritton was leaving the company, after sharply missing Wall Street’s expectations on quarterly earnings and revenue.

The home goods retailer’s board said Sue Gove, an independent director on the board, will step in as interim chief executive.

Shares plunged over 15% in premarket trading.

Here’s how the retailer did in the three-month period ended May 28 compared with what analysts were anticipating, based on Refinitiv data:

• Loss per share: $2.83 vs. $1.39 expected
• Revenue: $1.46 billion vs. $1.51 billion expected

Sales declined fell to $1.46 billion from $1.95 billion a year earlier. That was lower than estimates for $1.51 billion.

Bed Bath has been under pressure from activist investor Ryan Cohen, chairman ofGameStopand founder ofChewy. Early this year, Cohen’s firm, RC Ventures,revealed a 10% stake in the company. Cohen called for sweeping changes, criticized top executives’ high pay and urged the sale or spinoff of the company’s baby gear chain, Buybuy Baby.

Bed Bath and Cohencame to a truce in late March. The retailer agreed to add new independent directors to its board and look into alternatives for the Buybuy Baby chain.

But the challenges for the home goods retailer have not let up.

Shares of the company have dropped 55% so far this year and hit a fresh 52-week low earlier this month. On Tuesday, shares of the company closed at $6.53, down more than 3%.