What happened?The shares of the houseware chain Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ;BBBY), rose by 31% at Wednesday's open (though the gains were quickly reversed). Investors were excited by the company's first-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings report. It was released just before the open today.What are you waiting for?Bed Bath & Beyond's first quarter fiscal sales rose 49% year-over-year. The company's core brands, which include Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY as well as Harmon Face Values and Decorist, saw sales rise by 73%. Although the pandemic affected the quarter comparable in 2020, the year-over-2018 performance strongly suggests that Bed Bath & Beyond has gotten back on track.The retailer reported adjusted earnings of $0.05 per stock, compared with a loss $1.96 per share for the same quarter in 2021. Wall Street was pleased with the company's top line but disappointed by its bottom line.Although it's not a perfect result relative to consensus estimates, it is difficult to say that the quarter was bad. Based on the quarter's strong performance, Bed Bath & Beyond raised its full-year 2021 outlook from $8 billion to $8.5 billion to an $8.2 to $8.4 billion range. The adjusted EBITDA projections were also increased from $500 million to $525billion to $520m to $540m. Expect adjusted earnings to fall between $1.40-$1.55 per share. Investors were happy with this positive outlook.What now?Problem is, Bed Bath & Beyond got caught up in Reddit board craziness. Price movements here are often influenced more by emotion than the actual fundamentals. The stock has risen over 90% this year. However, there have been two extreme peaks which saw the shares rise as high as 180%, only to quickly drop back.Today's earnings announcement was positive news, and it likely precipitated big gains. However, investors should not get too excited -- there is a lot of good information already priced in and irrational shareholders appear to be driving stock price. Today's stock gain was actually reduced to 11% by 11:01 EDT.
