Lumber Liquidators (LL) shares plunged 20% as of 12:45 p.m. EDT today, as the hardwood-flooring specialist issued a warning that its second-quarter financial results would fall short of expectations. Yet even though investors are focusing largely on the company's experience over the past few months and its projections for the rest of the year, Lumber Liquidators has suffered trouble before now, and it could see even greater challenges down the road depending on how the overall economy performs. Moreover, many investors are extrapolating Lumber Liquidators' results to broader-line home-improvement retailers Home Depot (HD -1.77%) and Lowe's (LOW -1.40%), expecting that the same factors hurting Lumber Liquidators will affect the big-box home-improvement retail companies as well.
The following slideshow goes into greater detail about Lumber Liquidators' announcement, with specifics on the company's warnings on second-quarter sales and earnings and its view for the remainder of 2014. Given the difficulties Lumber Liquidators is having even in a relatively benign housing environment, long-term shareholders should be concerned about what will happen with the company's sales if housing growth starts to slow.
