If you can cut your way through the raft of one-time charges for this year and last, Motley Fool Income Investor pick La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB) looks to have finally turned the corner with its restructuring efforts.
For the quarter, La-Z-Boy turned in income from continuing operations of $0.35 per share, vs. last year's loss of $0.64 per share. Annual income from continuing operations was $0.63 vs. last year's $0.04.
The furniture industry as a whole has taken a big hit over the past six to 12 months, and La-Z-Boy is no exception. With low-cost goods pouring in from China and other parts of Asia, coupled with rising inventories and stagnant sales, investors' worries were not unfounded. However, I happen to believe they're overblown.
The real deal for La-Z-Boy, and others in the furniture industry such as Furniture Brands (NYSE:FBN) and Ethan Allen (NYSE:ETH), is free cash flow. The companies just mentioned, and many others, generate a ton of it. As Mathew Emmert put it recently, "The markup on a few scraps of wood and metal wrapped in various pieces of fabric is pretty phenomenal. Thus, cash flow in these businesses tends to be several times greater than actual earnings. And as we know, cash is king." Well put.
At La-Z-Boy, the restructuring charges have masked this cash profitability lately, but in the most recent quarter, trailing free cash flow was a robust $24.3 million, vs. last year's weak $7.5 million. One quarter's free cash flow doesn't make a trend, and the free cash flow for the year is still pretty weak. But with the business restructured and refocused on its core consumer market, it's likely to return to previous levels of free cash flow.
In the meantime, investors get a company with a solid balance sheet, a commitment to reducing its debt, share repurchases, and a juicy 3.2% dividend yield. That dividend was a bit larger just a month or so ago, but it's still a strong yield for a company that, at current prices, appears to offer a market-beating return on its shares as well.
Sit back and recline with some more La-Z-Boy Foolishness:
Since the inception of Motley Fool Income Investor , lead analyst Mathew Emmert has beaten the market handily -- a 14.89% return vs. the S&P 500's 8.82%. Sign up today to try an Income Investor subscription risk-free for 30 days.
Nathan Parmelee has his eye on a recliner for his living room but has no financial interest in any of the companies mentioned.
