Furniture Brands Feels the Pain: Fool by Numbers

On Jan. 31, 2007, Furniture Brands (NYSE: FBN  ) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended Dec. 31, 2006.

• A difficult selling environment continues to cause problems for the company. It used promotions and discounting to get rid of slower-moving inventory, and sales fell slightly.
• As a result, margins fell sharply across the board.
• Fourteen of 23 Motley Fool CAPS investors think the company will beat the S&P 500. What do you think? Bring your ideas to our community-intelligence database, CAPS!

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Sales	$586.5	$593.5	(1.2%)
Net Profit	$2.1	$17.1	(88.0%)
EPS	$0.04	$0.34	(88.2%)
Diluted Shares	48.3	50.5	(4.2%)

Get back to basics with a look at the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change*
Gross Margin	20.0%	23.1%	(3.1)
Operating Margin	0.6%	4.6%	(4.1)
Net Margin	0.4%	2.9%	(2.5)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$26.6	$114.3	(76.8%)
Accounts Rec.	$362.6	$349.2	3.8%
Inventory	$502.1	$432.8	16.0%

Liabilities	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Accounts Payable	$94.5	$101.9	(7.2%)
Long-Term Debt	$300.8	$301.6	(0.3%)

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Cash From Ops.	($17.2)	$35.8	N/A
Capital Expenditures	$5.1	$7.4	(31.1%)
Free Cash Flow	($22.3)	$28.4	N/A

Find out why Fools always follow the money.

Related Companies:

• Bassett Furniture (Nasdaq: BSET  )
• Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE: ETH  )
• La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB  )

Related Foolishness:

• Foolish Forecast: La-Z-Boy Lags Behind
• Haverty Lounges in Style
• Foolish Forecast: Uncomfortable Furniture Brands

La-Z-Boy is a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation. Discover more great dividend-paying stocks with a free 30-day trial.

Fool by Numbers is designed to give you the raw earnings information in a timely fashion, putting all the numbers you need in one easy-to-read place. But at The Motley Fool, we believe numbers tell only part of the story, so check Fool.com for more of our in-depth discussion of what the numbers mean. This data has been provided by Netscribes. To provide feedback on this article, please click on the "feedback" button below.