Earnings Preview For Hooker Furniture (HOFT)

Hooker Furniture Corp. HOFT reports 2011 fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Monday. Analysts expect the company to post a profit of $0.14 per share on revenues of $56.30 million. Earnings estimates have ticked down $0.01 over the past 60 days. Hooker designs, imports, develops, and markets residential wood, metal, and upholstered furniture products in North America. The company offers wood furniture products, including home entertainment, home office, accent, dining, bedroom, and bath furniture under the Hooker Furniture brand; and youth furniture under the Opus Designs by Hooker brand. The company has a poor recent history of exceeding estimates. It has missed the consensus view in three straight quarters by at least 8.30% each time. The stock is negative for the year as investors are skeptical that the company can exceed estimates this quarter. The stock is trading at 26.7x estimated 2011 earnings of $0.49 per share. Valuations are still stretched despite the poor performance of the stock. It will likely take a few quarters of positive surprises to regain investor confidence.