Investors reacted to fourth quarter results from Culp (NYSE: CULP) on Wednesday, as the company reported financial performance that exceeded market expectations.
Quarterly results reflected loss of $0.18 per share, weaker than analyst expectations of loss of $0.11 per share and lower than prior-year performance.
Culp posted quarterly sales of $51.62 million for the latest quarter, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $50.10 million while rising 5.8 percent from the prior-year period.
Consolidated net sales for the quarter was $51.6 million, up 7.6 percent from third quarter sales of $48.0 million and up approximately 6 percent from prior-year period sales of $48.8 million.
The bedding segment sales the quarter was up approximately 12 percent sequentially and 12.5 percent year-over-year and upholstery segment sales up 2.1 percent sequentially and down 2.5 percent year-over-year.
Fourth quarter consolidated gross profit of $6.8 million, or 13.2 percent of sales, up 210 basis points and almost 30 percent from third quarter gross profit of $5.3 million, or 11.1 percent of sales, and down from prior-year period gross profit of $7.7 million, or 15.7 percent of sales.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $(560) thousand, a 74 percent improvement from $(2.2) million in the third quarter and a decline from $511 thousand in the prior-year period.
For the full year, Consolidated net sales of $203.5 million, down 4.6 percent from net sales of $213.2 million in the prior fiscal year, with bedding sales up 2.4 percent and upholstery sales down 12.5 percent.
The company reported full year Net loss of $(10.2) million, or $(0.81) per diluted share, a 47 percent improvement over $(19.1) million, or $(1.53) per diluted share, in the prior fiscal year.
Iv Culp, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We were encouraged to see overall sales growth during the quarter along with some nice sequential improvement at the gross profit, operating and bottom lines. There is ground yet to cover to get where we ultimately want to be, but CULP is on the right path and our actions to optimize our platform are driving results.”
