Greetings, and welcome to Haverty's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Tiffany Hinkle, Assistant Vice President of Financial Reporting, Investor Relations. Thank you, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter earnings call. I'm here today with our President and CEO, Steve Burdette; and Executive Vice President and CFO, Richard Hare. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those made or implied in such statements, which speak only as of the date they are made and which we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include economic and competitive conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the company's reports filed with the SEC. A replay of this call will be available on our Investor Relations website this afternoon. For commentary about our business, I will now turn the call over to Steve.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our 2025 fourth quarter and 2025 year-end conference call. We are excited to report an increase in both written and delivered comp sales for Q4, marking our second consecutive quarter of positive comps. Our net sales for Q4 were $201.9 million, which was up 9.5% with comps up 8.2%. Total written sales were up 3.5% with comps up 3.2%. Gross margins for the quarter came in at 60.4% versus 61.9% last year. However, we did incur $3.9 million in LIFO charges during the quarter. Pretax income for the quarter was $10.8 million or 5.3% operating margin versus $9.6 million or 5.2% operating margin, resulting in a $0.51 a share versus $0.49 a share. For the calendar year 2025, our net sales came in at $759 million, which was up 5% with comps up 2.1%. Gross margins for the year were flat with last year coming in at 60.7%, including $4.6 million in LIFO charges. Pretax profits were $26.8 million or 3.5% operating margin versus $26.2 million or 3.6% operating margin, resulting in $1.19 a share, which was flat with last year. Richard will provide additional details regarding our SG&A expenses and LIFO impact in his discussion. During the quarter, we saw our written sales fall off as the quarter progressed. However, it was nice to see our after Thanksgiving sales up 6.2% with strong average ticket in design at approximately $8,500 and our overall average ticket at $4,400-plus. For Q4, our average ticket increased 10.9% to $3,759 with design average ticket growing 11.9% to $8,072. Our design business accounted for 33.3% of our sales, driven by our upholstery special order business up 14.8%. Traffic for the quarter followed our written sales trend during the quarter, ending with a decrease in the low single…

Thank you, Steve, and good morning. In the fourth quarter of 2025, net sales were $201.9 million, a 9.5% increase over the prior year quarter. Comparable store sales were up 8.2% over the prior year period. Our gross profit margin decreased 150 basis points to 60.4% from 61.9%. Excluding the impact of the $3.9 million LIFO expense in the fourth quarter of '25 and the $925,000 LIFO pickup in the prior year quarter, our adjusted gross profit margin increased 100 basis points to 62.4% from 61.4%. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $6.6 million or 6.3% to $112.5 million. As a percent of sales, these costs approximated 55.7% of sales, down from 57.4% in the prior year's quarter. We experienced increased selling, occupancy and administrative costs during the quarter. Other income expense in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $29,000, and interest income was approximately $1.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2025. Income before income taxes increased $1.2 million to $10.8 million. Our tax expense was $2.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2025, which resulted in annual effective tax rate of 26.5% for the year. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $8.5 million or $0.51 per diluted share on our common stock compared to net income of $8.2 million or $0.49 per share in the comparable quarter last year. Now turning to our balance sheet. At the end of the fourth quarter, our inventories were $96.2 million, which was up $12.7 million from December 31, 2024, and up $3.7 million versus Q3 of 2025. At the end of the fourth quarter, our customer deposits were $35.5 million, which was down $5.2 million from the December 31, 2024, balance and down $8.4 million from the Q3 2025 balance. We ended the quarter with $125.3 million of…

[Operator Instructions]. First question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Company.

Certainly nice performance here in the fourth quarter. Can you first just start us off with just some further details about your same-store sales trends throughout the quarter? If you could just kind of walk us through October through December, provide some additional color on that?

Sure. So in terms of the trend for the business. In terms of written business, we were up high single digits in October. We were -- in November, we were middle single digits up. In November and December, we were down low single digits. In terms of deliveries, we were up 10% in October, mid-single digits in November and up almost 15% in December.

That's very helpful. Okay. And then -- so I guess the other thing is as we look at the guidance for variable SG&A expenses for '26, it implies essentially flattish percentage from '25. You've talked about some sales momentum here that you had. I know there was a deceleration in the last month of the quarter, but nevertheless, the second consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales. So maybe if you could just kind of walk us through the different puts and takes in terms of what's affecting the variable component of your SG&A outlook for '26?

Sure. Anthony, so we came in, I believe, at 18.9% for the fourth quarter. We felt good about our guidance for 2025 being between 18.6% and 18.8%. Looking at this year, we felt like we needed to keep it in line, even though we anticipate having some leverage, we do anticipate having basically higher pressure on the selling cost in 2026 with higher sales commissions, and we need to remain competitive, so there could be some additional third-party credit costs going to the next year. So we wanted to keep that basically flat as a percentage. And then you noticed on the gross profit margins, we increased those. We had some significant pressure this year, as we called out in the press release, related to LIFO. As prices stabilize in 2026, we don't anticipate having that level of pressure. So we felt some confidence with our gross profit margin guidance going up. And then just overall, with the nonvariable piece. I mentioned in my remarks, that was primarily store growth and inflation. So I think that if you take to the -- we ended at $298 million and the middle of the estimate is $308 million, it's about a $10 million spread. About 40% of that increase is going to be occupancy cost as we grow the business and the rest is around about a 2% modest inflation on wages and incentives. And we don't really anticipate a great deal more of advertising cost. I think most of the pressure on the nonvariable is in occupancy costs and then just overall inflation with wages and insurance, et cetera.

That's very helpful. Okay. And then so with the evolving tariff environment, how do you guys think about as far as any additional potential new pricing actions? Is there anything already in the works or are you going to be holding off for now? Just wondering if you could speak to that?

Yes, Anthony, this is Steve. We're going to be very deliberate in that process. Obviously, our current inventories already have the tariffs baked in them. So we've got to work through those inventories as well before we get any impact of the new tariffs and if they're -- how sustainable are they, right? I mean, we've already -- it's 10% now, but obviously, over the weekend, we talked about it going -- administration, moving it to 15%. Is that going to happen? When that will happen? So at this point, there's not going to be any actions or reaction off of it. We're going to wait and see how it kind of plays out over the next few months and as we work this inventory through.

Got you. And my last question here. So as we look to update our quarterly models, is there anything that we should be aware of in terms of seasonality or timing of expenses or anything related to recent weather events that you guys need to call out? Just would love to hear your thoughts on that.

I'll say it and Richard can jump in here. I would say no, Anthony. And as far as weather events, we always have snow and weather in January and February, so that's not something that's unusual. So I don't see anything that would be a call out.

Your next question comes from Cristina Fernandez with Telsey Advisory Group.

I wanted to follow up on the tariff question. If the tariff goes to 15% from 10%, does that change the gross margin guidance you gave in perhaps a little bit more color on the timing of the inventory you have today, the tariff rate that was in effect in the fourth quarter, how long will it take to work through that inventory? Are we mostly looking at the first half or a little bit longer?

Yes. As far as the guidance, I don't see there being any changes. We've got that baked in as to where it is, whether it's 10% or 15%, Cristina, as far as going forward. And then as far as working through the inventory, I think it will take us the first half of the year. But we will be strategic about it and if there are things that we need to address to be competitive in certain price points, we will move on those. But again, we will move on those and still be able to maintain the guidance that we've given on the margins as far as going forward. But we feel like at this point, it will be -- the current inventory where we are, probably we'll work through the first half of the year, and then we'll bring in, obviously, the newer inventory, the newer cost. And again, this new tariff is only for 150 days, so it expires on July 24, and we know the administration is aggressively looking at other alternatives under Section 232, Section 301 and how they can get further increases in the tariffs. So time will tell.

And then I wanted to ask about the trends in the quarter that you talked about, specifically the written order trends that they decelerated a bit. Do you feel it's more a function of the year-over-year comparisons? Or do you notice any change, I guess, on the underlying, I guess, consumer behavior as you look at your regions or traffic or kind of what consumers were looking for when they came into the stores?

I don't think there's any specific, but I will tell you, I don't think the government shutdown helped us. Being shutdown for almost 45 days-or-so, that didn't set a good precedent as we move forward and kind of created some unknowns out there. But we talked about traffic. When we compare back to '24, Cristina, we were up double digits in traffic in November and December of '24. So we're not concerned about the traffic, and we were not overly concerned. We were excited about the average ticket that we were able to continue to drive up, and we were able to drive it through design. We're actually seeing an increase in design and the number of pieces per ticket. So that's encouraging as we go forward. So nothing that is -- would be a call out or alarming to us in the overall trend. And obviously, we're happy with the numbers overall.

And then my last question is regarding the mattress, the bedding refresh program. I think you tested it at a couple of stores. So can you talk about the lessons you've gotten and the stores that you tested it? And I guess what's changing the most? Is it the presentation, the merchandising? Maybe a little more detail on what consumers will see as you go through that program.

Yes, it will take us to get through all the stores into next year to complete. As I said, we're doing about 35% of the stores this year where we do the mattress and design centers. We have seen traction with our bedding, an improvement. And I think more of it is more about -- it's more informational. It's easier for the consumer to understand what they're looking at with each mattress set, and it's also easier for our sales consultants on the information needed to provide for that customer. So it's just a better presentation. I think it calls out the brands, puts it more in the consumer's face when they come into the store, makes them aware that we're in the business where before we were a little subdued in our presentation. So I think calling out the brands has certainly helped attract the consumer attention to that area. And I do think -- I think some of the recent reports showed the mattress business -- some of the people have reported already that the mattress business was down in the fourth quarter in the mid-single digits, if not higher, and we were flat. So we feel good about our traction that we're having and in especially the stores that have gotten the redone bedding departments.

And the last question I had was on the marketing and advertising side. You made some investments and changes through 2025. I mean I think you said fourth quarter spending was down, so as we look at 2026, do you expect, I guess, marketing and advertising to be flat as a percentage of sales? Or how should we think about those -- that expense item and investments there?

Yes. In '25, we increased our advertising. I think it's up about $4 million for the year. And that was because we cut it too much in '24. But we do feel like we're at that level. And in 2026, we anticipate our marketing spend to be flat with 2025.

I would like to turn the floor over to Tiffany Hinkle for closing remarks.

Thank you for your participation in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you in the future when we release our first quarter results. Have a great day, everyone.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.