Haverty Furniture Shares Fall

Haverty Furniture Stock Declines on Weak February Sales Forecast


NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Haverty Furniture Cos. Inc. declined on Wednesday, after the furniture retailer said fourth-quarter earnings fell 53 percent amid a sagging housing market.
February sales fell 12 percent compared to a year ago.
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Net income beat the analysts consensus.
On Tuesday, the Atlanta company said net income fell to $3.2 million or 14 cents per share, while a Thomson Financial poll found analysts expected earnings of 12 cents per share.
But news that February delivered sales month-to-date declined 12 percent from last year raised a red flag.
“The trend is much worse than our prior expectation of a low single-digit decline year-over-year in Q1 net sales,” Morgan Keegan & Co. analyst Laura A. Champine said in a note to investors Wednesday. “We are lowering our first quarter and 2017 earnings estimates, and reiterate our ‘Market Perform’ rating.”
Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. analyst John A. Baugh, who rates Haverty “Hold,” said the February indication was disappointing.
“A major furniture manufacturer we spoke with yesterday indicated President’s Day sales were weak for the industry,” Baugh wrote in a note on Wednesday. “We plan to review our estimates, but this is a weak report as expected. Business conditions are the weakest we can remember in this industry in at least 15 years.”
Shares fell 79 cents, or 5 percent, to $15.15 during afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.