Hooker Furniture Stock Rockets 20% After Earnings Beat

Shares of Virginia-based Hooker Furniture Corp. surged more than 20% in early trade Thursday, after the designer and importer of furniture for the residential, hospitality and contract markets blew past per-share earnings estimates for its fourth quarter. The company said it had net income of $11 million, or 95 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $4.1 million, or 38 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose to $173.9 million from $60.6 million, boosted by the acquisition of Home Meridian International which closed on Feb 1, 2016. Sales from that business were not included in the year-earlier results. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 66 cents. Chief Executive Paul Toms said earnings were driven by Home Meridian's "significant backlog" at the end of the third quarter, which led record shipments in the fourth quarter. "With sales recovering at both Home Meridian and Hooker legacy brands, we demonstrated the significant earnings leverage possible with our asset-light, low fixed cost business model," he said. Hooker Furniture designs and imports casegoods, or wooden and metal furniture, leather furniture and furniture upholstered with fabric. Shares are down 0.4% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.