Stanleytown, VA, October 16, 2006--Stanley Furniture Co. said Monday its third-quarter profit fell 48 percent, as homeowners held back on purchases of wooden furniture and the company incurred higher raw material, compensation and energy costs.
The results fell below Stanley's previously lowered forecast, and the company issued a forecast for fourth-quarter results below Wall Street's current expectations, sending shares falling $2.53, or 11.6 percent, to $19.21 in aftermarket trading. They had closed down $0.14 at $21.74 on the Nasdaq, where they've traded between $19.31 and $29.96 over the past year.
Quarterly net income dropped to $3 million, or $0.26 per share, from $5.8 million, or $0.44 per share. Quarterly sales slipped to $75.9 million from $85.6 million.
Wall Street had been expecting a profit of 28 cents per share on sales of $77.5 million, according to an analyst poll by Thomson Financial. In mid-September the company lowered its earnings projection to $0.27 to $0.29 per share, down from $0.38 to $0.41.
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Jeffrey R. Scheffer said in a statement he expects wooden residential furniture sales to remain in an industrywide slowdown "for a while."
"While we are disappointed with the sales decline, we believe it is a result of overall industry conditions," he said.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects fourth-quarter earnings per share of between $0.13 and $0.16 on sales of between $69 million and $71.5 million.
Analysts had been expecting earnings of $0.25 per share on sales of $75.8 million.
