Stock up for 20 companies, down for 24
Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, January 11, 2005
HIGH POINT — Industry stocks chugged along to a modest gain as a group last year, with Furniture/Today’s Furniture Stocks Index rising 5.5%.
Among all industry stocks the paper tracks, share prices rose for 20 companies and declined for 24 during 2004.Last year’s top gainer was coatings supplier CFC International, which posted higher sales and a big jump in earnings, partly because a competitor withdrew from a key market. CFC’s stock soared 164%.The rent-to-own business was very, very good to two companies, Canada’s Easyhome and Atlanta-based Aaron Rents. Easyhome, formerly RTO Enterprises, posted revenue gains as it opened new stores and added customers at existing units. Earnings nearly tripled in the first nine months, and its stock price rose 101% for the year.Aaron’s shares rose 74.7% as the company’s Sales and Lease Ownership, or rent-to-own, division kept growing. Revenues were up 26.4% for the first nine months and earnings rose 48.5%. Aaron continues to open more corporate and franchised stores.Also impressing investors was retailer Sleep Country Canada, which rode double-digit sales gains and a big jump in earnings to a 72.8% rise in stock price.Among the major furniture manufacturers, Stanley’s stock performed best with a 41.7% gain, after a 35% rise in 2003. The case goods producer, using a mix of U.S. production and import sourcing, reported double-digit gains in sales and profits for the first nine months of 2004.A pair of specialty sleep companies got up on different sides of the bed last year. Visco-elastic foam mattress producer Tempur-Pedic’s stock price rose about 26%, but airbed manufacturer-retailer Select Comfort’s shares fell 27.8%, giving up some of the stock’s big gain in 2003.Select Comfort’s sales and profits have kept rising, but management announced a lower earnings forecast in July that deflated its share price.Also on the losing end of the market last year were two big U.S. upholstery fabric producers, Quaker Fabric and Culp. Both saw their stock price skid more than 40% as sales and earnings fell, partly because of sluggish demand and increased competition from leather and microdenier suede for upholstery covers.Stock prices also fell for the two largest U.S. furniture manufacturers, Furniture Brands International and La-Z-Boy. Both companies were reporting sales gains in the low single digits, but earnings were down 3.8% for FBI in the first nine months of 2004 and down 74.6% for La-Z-Boy in its fiscal first half ended Oct. 23.
-
Stock up for 20 companies, down for 24
Jan 23, 2005
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
