Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Jun 28, 2026
BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. (BBBY)
A forensic read on BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-5.6
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-32.5%
ROE
$465M
Market cap
BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is -5.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio.
What the filings flag
+68.6%Accruals ratio.Net operating assets grew +68.6% relative to their average in FY2025 — the accrual component of earnings. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by -64% of net operating assets.
-66%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -66% and slipping from 7% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+11.9%/yrShare-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +36% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+11.9%/yr). The count is GROWING — existing holders are being diluted. That's ~11.9% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~36%.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin-8.1%
Debt / Equity0.23x
Free Cash Flow$-64.1M
Latest Revenue$1.04B
Return on Equity-38.9%
Revenue Growth YoY-25.1%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on BED BATH & BEYOND, INC.:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about BBBY's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown