La-Z-Boy Shares Up 4% As Profit Tops Estimates, Raises Dividend

La-Z-Boy Inc. shares surged more than 4% in after-hours trade Tuesday, after the furniture maker reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings and announced a dividend hike. La-Z-Boy said it had net income of $19.5 million, or 37 cents a share, up from $16.7 million, or 33 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose to $365.6 million from $352.3 million. The FactSet consensus was for per-share earnings of 34 cents and sales of $371 million. "Additionally, we experienced an increase in same-store written sales for the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries(R) network, generated strong operating cash flow, raised our quarterly dividend and purchased $13.6 million of our stock," Chief Executive Kurt Darrow said in a statement. The company is raising its quarterly dividend by 33% to 8 cents a share, he said. Shares are down 27% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 11%.