Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc.

Q2 net sales were $194.9 million, up 7.7% year over year, and comparable store sales rose 8%. Gross profit margin increased 60 basis points to 61.4% from 60.8%, pretax income rose to $7.4 million from $4.3 million, and EPS doubled to $0.32 from $0.16. Excluding about $1.5 million of IEEPA tariff refunds in cost of sales, gross margin would have been 60.7%; excluding LIFO, adjusted gross margin was 60.9% in both periods. Net income was $5.3 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, and net income excluding the tariff impact was $4.2 million, or $0.25 per diluted share. For 2026, management reiterated gross margin guidance of 60.5% to 61% excluding additional tariff refunds, SG&A guidance of $307 million to $309 million for fixed and discretionary costs, variable SG&A of 18.7% to 18.9%, planned CapEx of about $34 million, and an effective tax rate of 26%.

Steve Burdette framed the quarter as strong across both demand and execution, emphasizing that Havertys doubled EPS and posted its fourth straight quarter of positive written and delivered comp sales. He highlighted broad-based strength across categories, better traffic, rising average ticket, and continued growth in design and custom special order business. His tone was upbeat about the back half, pointing to resilient higher-end consumers, six planned store openings, improving inventory, AI adoption, and momentum heading into Labor Day.

Richard Hare detailed the financial drivers behind the quarter, including gross margin of 61.4%, SG&A of $113.2 million, and a lower tax rate of 28.5% versus 37.8% last year. He said about $1.5 million of the $2.1 million in IEEPA tariff refunds reduced cost of goods sold, with the remainder spread to inventory, interest income, and supplier rebates. On the balance sheet, he noted inventories of $100.5 million, cash and cash equivalents of $104.3 million, no funded debt, and $100 million of borrowing capacity after the revolver amendment; he also cited $13.1 million of CapEx year-to-date, $10.6 million of dividends, and $16.6 million spent on repurchases, including 723,000 shares bought back year-to-date.

Analysts focused on traffic, regional performance, average ticket durability, tariff refunds, and SG&A pressure. Management said traffic turned positive in Q2 after a negative Q1, that every district was positive with strength in the Midwest and East, and that higher average ticket was driven by both pricing and more units per ticket, with design still only reaching the high-teens percentage of customers versus a potential 25% plus. On tariffs, Richard Hare said direct-source refunds are essentially done, while indirect refunds are still being negotiated and could be roughly in the same ballpark, plus or minus $1 million to $1.5 million. He also said variable SG&A is rising mainly because third-party credit costs are higher this year, and fixed SG&A steps up in the back half due to rent and occupancy tied to store openings.