If you're interested in catching the Q2 2007 earnings news from sofa king Natuzzi (NYSE:NTZ) live, you might want to bed down on your own couch Tuesday night. Don't want to get too comfortable, you know, and risk sleeping through the news -- Natuzzi reports at the uncomfortable hour of 4 a.m. EST, Wednesday morning.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? While Wall Street doesn't cover this stock, our Motley Fool CAPS community offers the company four stars out of five.

What management says:
Big changes are afoot at Natuzzi's C-level. In July, CEO Ernesto Greco announced his resignation "for personal and professional reasons," effective Sept. 30, 2007. He'll most likely be replaced by founder, chairman of the board, and near-majority shareholder Pasquale Natuzzi.

Said Natuzzi (the person): "During this very important and challenging period for our Company, I will pledge myself to guarantee continuity and lead the management toward the ambitious goals we intend to achieve."

What management does:
What goals might those be, you ask? Well, in June, the company announced that because of "challenging business conditions affecting all major markets and the adverse currency trend that are depressing the order flow, the Company is recurring to a temporary reduction of the production working time at the Italian plants (from 8 to 5 hours per shift) starting from June 13, 2007 for thirteen weeks." So my guess is the first goal might be to continue finding ways to slim down costs, since the company's margins have been on a downward trend from lower sales and higher raw material costs.

Margins

12/05

3/06

6/06

9/06

12/06

3/07

Gross

32.4%

31.8%

34%

33.9%

33.3%

32.4%

Operating

(1.2%)

(0.7%)

3.1%

2.9%

2.2%

(0%)

Net

(2.2%)

(0.6%)

1.9%

2.3%

1.7%

0.1%
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:
Natuzzi already has stronger gross margins than rivals La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB), Furniture Brands (NYSE:FBN), or Hooker (NASDAQ:HOFT) can boast. And while the company's latest performance was a bit sluggish, that's mainly a result of short-term cyclical issues, which should reverse once the housing industry breaks out of the bottom of this cycle.

Fluff up a sofa cushion, and get familiar with Natuzzi's recent news: