Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT) adds US$11m to market cap in the past 7 days, though investors from five years ago are still down 57%

Hooker Furnishings Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) shareholders should be happy to see the share price up 19% in the last month. But don’t envy holders — looking back over 5 years the returns have been really bad. Indeed, the share price is down 66% in the period. Some might say the recent bounce is to be expected after such a bad drop. But it could be that the fall was overdone.

On a more encouraging note the company has added US$11m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let’s see if we can determine what’s driven the five-year loss for shareholders.

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Because Hooker Furnishings made a loss in the last twelve months, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. When a company doesn’t make profits, we’d generally hope to see good revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one would hope for good top-line growth to make up for the lack of earnings.

Over half a decade Hooker Furnishings reduced its trailing twelve month revenue by 9.6% for each year. That’s definitely a weaker result than most pre-profit companies report. It seems appropriate, then, that the share price slid about 11% annually during that time. We don’t generally like to own companies that lose money and don’t grow revenues. You might be better off spending your money on a leisure activity. You’d want to research this company pretty thoroughly before buying, it looks a bit too risky for us.

The company’s revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free report showing analyst forecasts should help you form a view on Hooker Furnishings

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It’s fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Hooker Furnishings, it has a TSR of -57% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there’s no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 14% in the last year, Hooker Furnishings shareholders lost 40% (even including dividends). Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Unfortunately, last year’s performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 9% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should “buy when there is blood on the streets”, but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we’ve identified 1 warning sign for Hooker Furnishings that you should be aware of.

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Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.