What happened
Office-furniture specialist Steelcase (SCS 1.97%) might have wished it stayed home from the office on Thursday. Investors reacted sharply to the company's latest set of quarterly results, and not in a good way. They collectively traded the stock down by just over 10% on the day.
So what
For its second quarter of fiscal 2023, Steelcase's revenue came in at slightly more than $863 million, for a sturdy year-over-year improvement of 19%. On the other hand, the company's headline net income sank to $19.6 million ($0.17 per share) from the year-ago figure of $24.7 million. On a non-GAAP (adjusted) basis, that bottom-line figure for the latest quarter was $0.21.
That represented a mixed quarter for Steelcase. The average analyst estimate for revenue was more than $887 million. However, those prognosticators were anticipating a much lower adjusted net profit at $0.13 per share.
Steelcase attributed its double-digit revenue growth to a strong backlog and what it characterized as "pricing benefits," which helps explain the bottom-line drop.
The company also declared a fresh dividend. It will hand out $0.10 per share to investors of record as of Oct. 5. This will be paid on or before Oct. 17, it added.
Now what
Steelcase's guidance was likely more an issue for investors than the revenue miss or the profitability slide. It said its top line should land at $825 million to $850 million, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.17 to $0.21. Unfortunately, neither range tops the average analyst estimates of $857 million and $0.23, respectively.
