Hooker Furniture Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

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Sep 12, 2013
Hooker Furniture Corp. (HOFT, Financial) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2013-08-04.

Hooker Furniture Corporation has a market cap of $151.9 million; its shares were traded at around $14.18 with a P/E ratio of 15.70 and P/S ratio of 0.70. The dividend yield of Hooker Furniture Corporation stocks is 2.90%. Hooker Furniture Corporation had an annual average earning growth of 4.9% over the past 5 years.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Upholstery selling and administrative expenses increased in absolute terms in the fiscal 2014 second quarter compared to the same prior-year period, primarily due to increased commissions due to increased sales, partially offset by decreased samples expense.

The increase in consolidated net sales for the fiscal 2014 first half was principally due to higher average selling prices in both segments and increased unit volume in our upholstery segment, partially offset by lower unit volume in our casegoods segment. The higher average selling prices in both segments were primarily the result of a shift in the mix of products sold toward some of our higher priced items. The decrease in casegoods unit volume was primarily due to reduced promotional discounting activity compared to the prior-year period.

Casegoods sales have been slower to regain their pre-recession momentum, possibly due to the longer life of wood furniture and its higher average purchase prices compared to upholstery. However, we are shipping much better than last year thanks to a much improved inventory position and strength of our best-selling lines. For the first half of fiscal 2014, casegoods shipments were up approximately 8% over the prior-year first-half, which we believe is higher than the average for the casegoods industry as a whole. In the fiscal 2014 second quarter, casegoods orders increased approximately 11% over the prior-year quarter. We expect to continue the elevated levels of casegoods promotional discounting to reduce our inventories of older, slower moving imported products to make room for new introductions, as we did in the fiscal 2014 second quarter. We expect casegoods product margins to be further tempered by increased discounting as we work down this inventory over the remainder of the year. However, the ultimate effect on margins is largely dependent on the mix of discounted and non-discounted products that we re able to sell over the second-half of the fiscal year.

At Sam Moore, the challenge of increasing production, expanding capacity and manufacturing productivity has proven greater than expected. Over the last several quarters, we have continued to hire new manufacturing associates, but it typically takes at least three months before a new sewer or upholsterer makes a direct contribution. Consequently, we have incurred significant training and overtime costs. Due to these production challenges and increased sales, our order backlog was 75% higher at the end of the fiscal 2014 second quarter as compared to the end of the 2013 second quarter. We believe that once we reduce our order backlog and increase capacity, the additional shipment volume and improved labor efficiency will result in increased profitability. As we move forward, we also expect to reduce our training and overtime costs for additional savings. While the progress has been slower than we would like, we are optimistic about the long-term future for both sales and profitability at Sam Moore.

general economic or business conditions, both domestically and internationally, and instability in the financial and credit markets, including their potential impact on our (i) sales and operating costs and access to financing or (ii) customers and suppliers and their ability to obtain financing or generate the cash necessary to conduct their respective businesses;

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