Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) Q1 2024 Results Conference Call May 2, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Richard Hare - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Clarence Smith - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Steve Burdette - President

Conference Call Participants

Mickey Legg - The Benchmark Company
Anthony Lebiedzinski - Sidoti & Company
Budd Bugatch - Water Tower Research
Cristina Fernandez - Telsey Group

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Haverty's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Richard Hare, Chief Financial Officer.

Richard Hare

Thank you, operator.

During this conference call, we'll make forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks 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.

Our Chairman and CEO, Clarence Smith, will now give you an update on our results and our President, Steve Burdette, will provide additional commentary about our business.

Clarence Smith

Thank you for joining our first quarter conference call. Our Q1 sales were down 18.1% to $184 million with comparable store sales down 18.5%. Total written sales were down 12.6%. We continued with strong gross margins at 60.3% and controlled cost, which allowed us to produce a pre-tax profit of $3.2 million compared to $15.4 million in last year's Q1.

We're well prepared for the Memorial Day event, the most important of the first half, with energized marketing plans and exciting lineup of new products, excellent balanced inventories and new in-store signage. Our Board approved a 6.7% increase in our quarterly dividend, which is our 12th year of consistent dividend increases. Haverty has paid a dividend every year since 1935. Our strong balance sheet with over $100 million in cash, allows us to return capital to our shareholders and invest in infrastructure and stores in our markets.

In 139 years of furnishing homes throughout our regions, Haverty has consistently gained market share, especially in difficult times. The falloff in furniture demand following the dramatic sales increases due to COVID has had a major impact on the industry. The industry struggled to supply timely furniture deliveries in the gangbuster years during COVID, but once that backlog cleared up, we experienced a significant negative impact throughout the industry.