La-Z-Boy Profit Misses Street; Shares Down 15%

(RTTNews) - Furniture maker La-Z-Boy Inc. (LZB), Tuesday reported an increase in profit for the first quarter, however, its earnings fell short of Wall Street estimates by a penny. La-Z-Boy shares plummeted about 16 percent in after-hours trade.

Monroe, Michigan-based La-Z-Boy's first-quarter profit rose to $13.80 million or $0.28 per share from $13.68 million or $0.27 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.29 per share for the quarter.

La-Z-Boy's sales for the quarter dropped to $340.78 million from $341.42 million a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $358.79 million for the quarter.

The company said its sales were impacted by weaker demand at wholesale and inconsistent traffic throughout the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store system.

Within the company's wholesale segment, upholstery sales declined 1.9 percent to $267.4 million, while casegoods rose 7 percent to $25.0 million. Sales from retail segment increased 10.5 percent to $95.7 million.

Same-store sales for the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network declined 1.9 percent compared with an increase of 5.3 percent last year.

Looking forward, Chief Executive Kurt Darrow said, "We are optimistic about our business for the long term and believe we are making the correct strategic investments to drive sales growth, profitability and returns to shareholders."

LZB closed Tuesday's trading at $31.20, up $1.08 or 3.59%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, slipped $4.90 or 15.71% in the after-hours trade.