Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings call. I'm here today with our President and CEO, Steven Burdette, and Executive Vice President and CFO, Richard Hare. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those made or implied in such statements, which speak only as of the date they are made and which we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include economic and competitive conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the company's reports filed with the SEC. A replay of this call will be available on our investor relations website this afternoon. For commentary about our business, I will now turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, and thank you for joining our 2026 second quarter conference call. Q2 was a strong quarter, and I want to lead with the headline: we doubled earnings per share and delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of positive written and delivered comp sales. Net sales for Q2 were $194.9 million, up 7.7%, with comps up 8%. Total written sales were up 12.6%, with comps up 12.3%. Gross margin expanded 60 basis points to 61.4% from 60.8% last year. Pre-tax income was $7.4 million or 3.8% of sales, compared with $4.3 million or 2.4% of sales a year ago, and earnings per share came in at $0.32 versus $0.16 a year ago. Richard will cover the impact of our recent stock buybacks, LIFO, tariff refunds, and expectations for future tariff refunds in his discussion. Written sales grew double digits every month of the quarter.

Our Memorial Day promotion was up 9.7% for the four-day period and up 14.1% for the two-week period. Traffic increased slightly, and closing percentages held steady during the quarter. The standout was average ticket, which rose 14% to over $3,800, led by Design average ticket, which was up 15.7% to over $8,800. Design accounted for 36.5% of our business as it continues to drive our custom special order business, which rose 23.6%. Customers love being able to choose exactly the right fabric or leather in their preferred color from our vast assortment. Every merchandise category was positive for the quarter, with double-digit increases in upholstery, bedroom, dining, and occasional, and mid-single-digit growth in mattresses and decor. Our merchandising and supply chain teams continue to execute our merchandise plan, keeping assortments nimble and best sellers in stock to meet customer demand.

In May, I traveled with our merchandising team to our Vietnam factories to further strengthen our partnerships with our key suppliers. While in Vietnam, I had the opportunity to meet our newly expanded Haverty's Vietnam quality team in person. The team plays an essential role in Haverty's success, and I came away more energized about our capabilities and our opportunities. We reduced inventories from $106.9 million at the end of Q1 to $100.5 million at the end of Q2. That result shows what supply chain distribution, merchandising, and store operations can accomplish working as one team, driving sales while improving inventory terms. We expect to end Q3 in the $95 million range with a 5% swing either way, depending on product flow and sales. This will position us to meet our customers' delivery expectations and achieve our sales goals.

On the tariff front, the new Section 301 tariffs that replaced the Section 122 tariffs on July 24th came in at 10% and 12.5%, giving us more confidence heading into the balance of the year. As expected, the Section 232 tariffs on upholstered wood furniture remained at 25%. We are actively managing three cost pressures related to fuel increases that will impact our margins and expenses throughout the remainder of the year. One, beginning in mid-August, we will see roughly a 25%-30% increase in our container rates due to the increased bunker fuel rates. Two, if diesel fuel remains above $5 a gallon due to continued geopolitical pressures, we will continue to see increases in our transportation and delivery fuel expenses through year-end. Three, the additional impact that the fuel increases will have on our product input costs for the remainder of the year.

We expect the tariff refunds already received, along with the potential future refunds from third-party suppliers to help us offset some of these cost pressures. This will give us flexibility to be more selective with any retail price adjustments as we remain committed to our full-year gross margin guidance of 60.5%-61%, excluding any additional tariff refunds. Our marketing, creative, and media plans remain consistent as we continue to use connected TV, broadcast TV, social media, and other digital channels. We continue to utilize direct mail to showcase for our customers what our designers can do to bring their homes to life, focusing on winning new customers. A new customer spends 50% more than a repeat customer, so that shift carries real value. Our second annual thank you loyalty email campaign, which ended in early June, rewarded our repeat customers for their patronage of our brand.

Appealing to both sets of customers, new and repeat, is vital to our overall growth. Organic traffic to the site continues to improve as we strengthen our organic visibility in both SEO and GEO, and that helped drive written e-commerce sales up double digits for the quarter. Our marketing dollars were slightly down for the quarter as we continue to leverage these expenses. Our use of 60 months, no-interest financing was consistent with last year, though the cost of these programs continues to tick up. We will stay aggressive with our credit offerings during the promotional periods so that we meet our customers' financing demands and stay competitive in each of our markets. We are encouraged by the momentum of AI across the business.

During the quarter, we expanded our use of AI beyond marketing, supply chain, and IT development into additional customer-facing and operational areas, including home delivery, customer chat, and sales and Design communications with customers. We believe these capabilities will become another point of differentiation by improving both how we execute and how we serve our customers. We ended the quarter with 129 stores. During the quarter, we opened two new locations, one in St. Louis, Missouri, and one in Nashville, Tennessee. Both are running ahead of budgeted traffic and volume expectations. We plan to open six new stores in the second half of the year, with one being a relocation. Fredericksburg, Virginia, will open late in Q3. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will open in early Q4 and will mark our entry into our 18th state. Snellville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, will relocate in mid-Q4.

McKinney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, opens in mid-Q4. Baytown and Richmond, Texas, both suburbs of Houston, open in late Q4. We finalized the closing of our San Angelo, Texas, store on June 30th and plan to close College Station, Texas, on August 31st. We will continue to evaluate our existing leases and locations so that we are reinvesting our capital to create the biggest return for our shareholders. We expect the year to end with 133 stores. We continue the refresh of our mattress departments and Design centers, which showcases two of the biggest opportunities for growth in our stores. We will have just over half the stores complete by year-end, with the remainder to be finished in 2027. We are optimistic about the remainder of 2026. Here's why. Our customers remain resilient at the upper end of the market.

We are opening six new stores in the second half of 2026. We have had four consecutive quarters of positive written and delivered comp sales. Our marketing plans are reaching our customers with a message of Design and confidence in our brand. Our Design business continues to grow with meaningful upside still ahead in average ticket and customer engagement. Our merchandising team is committed to introducing new products faster, creating excitement for both our teams and our customers. Our supply chain network, in combination with our fantastic suppliers, allows us to deliver quality products on time. Our investment in training and coaching our teams, paired with AI, is driving productivity. Our inventories are in excellent shape with low markdowns. Our distribution, home delivery, and customer service, which are all Haverty team members, provide our customers with consistent professional service.

Finally, we are heading into our biggest holiday of the year, Labor Day, with momentum. I want to thank our roughly 2,400 team members across 17 states for the hard work, dedication, and passion they bring to serving our customers' home furnishing needs. Our people remain one of the most important assets and a true differentiator against our competition. That expectation was set decades ago by Clarence Haverty, who created our motto that we live by today: "Remember, our reputation is in your hands. At the point of contact with a customer, you are Haverty's." I will now turn the call over to Richard.

Thanks, Steve, good morning. In the second quarter of 2026, net sales were $194.9 million, a 7.7% increase over the prior year quarter. Comparable store sales were up 8% over the prior year period. Our gross profit margin increased 60 basis points to 61.4% from 60.8%. Excluding the impact of approximately $1.5 million in IEEPA tariff refunds recognized in cost of sales in the quarter, our gross profit margin was 60.7% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to 60.8% in the prior year quarter. Further, excluding the impact of LIFO, a $496,000 expense in the second quarter of 2026, and a $100,000 expense in the prior year quarter, our adjusted gross profit margin was 60.9% in both periods. Selling general and administrative expenses increased $5.8 million or 5.4% to $113.2 million. As a percentage of sales, these costs approximated 58%, down from 59.3% in the prior year's quarter.

We experienced an increase in selling expense, primarily due to higher commission-based compensation and third-party credit costs, an increase in administrative expenses, primarily from higher salaries, performance-based incentive comp, and related benefits, and also an increase in delivery and transportation costs. Other income expense in the second quarter was $74,000, and interest income was approximately $923,000 during the second quarter of 2026. Income before income taxes increased $3.1 million to $7.4 million. Our tax expense was $2.1 million for the second quarter of 2026, which resulted in an effective tax rate of 28.5% versus 37.8% in the prior year period. The primary difference in the effective tax rate and the statutory rate is due to state income taxes and the impact of vesting of stock awards.