Why HNI's Shares Dropped (HNI)

Why HNI's Shares Dropped

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of office furniture maker HNI (NYSE: HNI ) dropped as much as 10.5% today after releasing fourth-quarter earnings.

So what: Revenue was up 5.5% in the quarter to $527.5 million, in line with what analysts expected. But bottom-line net income of $17.6 million, or $0.40 per share, was $0.03 short of estimates, and that sent shares lower in early trading.

Now what: The market reacted very negatively in early trading but recovered most of the loss as the day went on. As the company's press release stated, results were actually in line with their own estimates, and next year should be even better. Management expects next year's non-GAAP earnings per share to be between $1.25 and $1.45 per share, a nice increase from $1.13 this year. I'd like to get a better value than paying as much as 24 times next year's earnings, but I don't think the financial results are anything to panic about.

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