La-Z-Boy Reports Financial Fourth Quarter Results

June 17, 2026  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

Fourth quarter total written sales for the Retail segment (company-owned La-Z-Boy stores) increased 11% versus a year ago. Written same-store sales (which exclude the impact of both newly opened stores and newly acquired stores) were down 2%, a sequential improvement, and comparing favorably to the broader industry. During the quarter, same-store sales trends were strongest in April with positive trends continuing through May.

Fiscal 2026 Fourth Quarter Highlights:

- Retail segment written sales increased 11% and delivered sales increased 9%; GAAP and adjusted⁽¹⁾ operating margin improved versus prior year

- Company-owned network grew by four stores; 230 company-owned store base now represents 61% of total 378 store network

- Wholesale segment delivered sales down slightly, while adjusted operating margin improved versus prior year

- GAAP operating margin of 7.2% and adjusted⁽¹⁾ operating margin of 9.9%, up 50 bps versus prior year

- GAAP diluted EPS of $0.81 and adjusted⁽¹⁾ diluted EPS of $1.26

- Completed strategic exit of American Drew and Kincaid wholesale casegoods businesses in May (subsequent to quarter end) and finalized U.K. supply chain restructuring in April

- Established new share repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $300 million of Company stock, replacing prior program

Fiscal 2026 Highlights:

- Delivered consolidated sales of $2.1 billion, up 1% versus prior year

- Retail segment written sales increased 8% and delivered sales increased 6%

- Added 15 newly opened stores and acquired 15 independent La-Z-Boy stores (both the largest annual expansions in company history)

- Wholesale segment delivered sales were flat while delivering adjusted⁽¹⁾ operating margin improvement

- GAAP operating margin of 6.1% and adjusted⁽¹⁾ operating margin of 7.1%

- GAAP diluted EPS of $2.47 and adjusted⁽¹⁾ diluted EPS of $3.04

- Generated $204 million in operating cash flow for the year, up 9% versus prior year

- Strong capital deployment with $163 million reinvested back into the business through acquisitions and capital expenditures and $85 million returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends

- Fifth consecutive year of increasing quarterly dividend by 10%

Melinda D. Whittington, board chair, president and CEO of La-Z-Boy Incorporated, said, "We are pleased with the strong finish to the fiscal year as our fourth quarter margin performance exceeded expectations driven by strong execution across our businesses. We continue to drive our own momentum and are playing offense, led by our Retail business expansion through new stores, acquisition of independent stores, and delighting consumers across our network. This growth has contributed to our solid results and market share expansion against an industry that remains soft. Our company-owned stores now total 230 across North America, an all-time high of 61% of our total network, and are a key pillar of our Century Vision strategy to grow La-Z-Boy brand reach."

Whittington added, "We continue to execute well across our Century Vision strategy, and are increasingly focused on our core, vertically integrated North American upholstery business where we have a clear right to win with consumers. Over the last year, we have successfully exited our wholesale casegoods businesses, streamlined our U.K. supply chain, are transforming our entire distribution and home delivery network, and we recently announced streamlining two additional smaller manufacturing plants into our larger U.S. plant network. These actions continue to optimize our enterprise to drive sustainable sales growth and margin expansion even against the current macroeconomic backdrop. As we approach our 100-year anniversary in March 2027, we will continue to drive forward with consumer-led innovation, Retail expansion, and digital transformation to position La-Z-Boy Incorporated for continued success in the next 100 years."

First Quarter Outlook:
Taylor Luebke, SVP and CFO of La-Z-Boy Incorporated, said, "During the quarter, we executed well and continued to deliver on near-term expectations, while also investing for the future. While we continue to have a measured view of the external environment, we expect to continue to outperform the industry with first quarter sales in the range of $490-510 million, reflecting organic growth of up to 4% (excluding acquisitions and divestitures), and adjusted operating margin⁽²⁾ in the range of 4.0-5.5%. Lastly, as a reminder, our first quarter is generally the lowest sales and operating margin quarter in the fiscal year due to seasonally lower industry sales and our annual week long plant shutdown."

Fiscal 2026 Fourth Quarter Results versus Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter:

- Consolidated sales in the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2026 were flat at $570 million versus last year, as growth in our Retail business was offset by lower delivered volume in our Joybird business

- Consolidated GAAP operating margin was 7.2% versus 5.2%

- Consolidated adjusted⁽¹⁾ operating margin was 9.9% versus 9.4% last year, with the change primarily driven by 100 bps from our casegoods business (due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing before the divestiture) partially offset by expense deleverage on lower Joybird delivered sales

- GAAP diluted EPS was $0.81 versus $0.36 in the prior year period, and adjusted⁽¹⁾ diluted EPS of $1.26 versus $0.92 last year in the comparable period, both of which include a $0.16 impact from favorable discrete tax items

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow, Fiscal 2026:

- Ended the quarter with $303 million in cash⁽³⁾ and no external debt

- Generated $204 million in cash from operating activities, an increase of 9% versus prior year, including $28 million in the fourth quarter

- Paid $86 million for acquisitions, primarily related to the 15-store acquisition of the retail business in the Southeast U.S.

- Invested $76 million in capital expenditures, primarily related to La-Z-Boy stores (new stores and remodels), manufacturing-related investments, and spending related to our distribution and home delivery transformation

- Returned approximately $85 million to shareholders, including $47 million in share repurchases and $38 million in dividends, which was our fifth consecutive year of 10% increases

Conference Call:
The call will be webcast live, with corresponding slides, and archived on the internet. It will be available at https://ir.la-z-boy.com/events. A telephone replay will be available for a week following the call. This replay will be accessible to callers from the U.S. and Canada at (877) 481-4010 and to international callers at (919) 882-2331. Enter Replay Passcode: 54076. The webcast replay will be available for one year.