La-Z-Boy Swings to 1Q Loss From Declining Sales -- Update

By Dean Seal and Kelly Cloonan

La-Z-Boy swung to a loss in its fiscal first quarter from an unexpected decline in sales.

The furniture maker also gave a sales forecast for the current quarter below Wall Street's current estimates, and warned that its near-term investments could pressure its margins.

Shares slid 16% to $34.34 in late trading on Tuesday. At the market close, shares were up 9.6% year to date.

The furniture maker posted a loss of $2.29 million, or 6 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 25, compared with a profit of $18.2 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, adjusted earnings were 43 cents a share. That missed the 49-cent per-share consensus estimate of two analysts polled by FactSet.

Sales slid 3% to $475.7 million, missing analyst forecasts for a gain to $501 million.

Chief Financial Officer Taylor Luebke said La-Z-Boy is expecting $500 million to $520 million in sales in the current quarter, which would come in below analysts' current estimate for $537 million.

The view reflects strong written retail sales and a solid wholesale backlog, tempered by a cautious view of the wider economic outlook, Luebke said.

Additionally, Luebke said the company expects its investments in new stores, advertising, strategic pricing and digital transformation, as well as other costs, to weigh on its bottom line in the current quarter, forecasting an adjusted operating margin of 4% to 5.5%.

The company also expects fiscal second quarter sales of $500 million to $520 million. The outlook reflects enterprise sales of down 1% to up 2% excluding the effect of its wholesale casegoods divestiture.

In the fiscal first quarter, delivered sales were up 10% in the retail segment, but that was more than offset by a decline in wholesale delivered sales, which suffered from choppy order patterns.

The company turned a weaker gross profit year-over-year and higher selling, general and administrative costs.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com and Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2026 17:49 ET (21:49 GMT)