NEW YORK, May 21, 2026, 05:07 EDT
Flexsteel Industries shares are up 3.5% going into Thursday’s regular session. Management is set to meet investors later Thursday, putting the company’s big buyback and margins in the spotlight again.
Flexsteel Industries, Inc. (FLXS) ended Wednesday at $55.24, gaining 3.52%. The stock hit $55.54 during the session, with 43,376 shares traded, according to LSEG data posted on the company’s investor site. Sidoti has Flexsteel set to present Thursday from 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT.
Timing is an issue. Flexsteel, which trades on Nasdaq and has a small market cap, wants investors to watch its per-share earnings after a buyback that slashed its share count.
President and CEO Derek Schmidt and CFO Mike Ressler are set to appear at Sidoti’s Micro-Cap Virtual Investor Conference, where they will also take one-on-one investor meetings, the company said. “Micro-cap” is Wall Street’s way of talking about smaller public companies; Sidoti pitches its event business as focused on small and microcap issuers. Business Wire
Stocks climbed Wednesday as a pullback in bond yields and softer oil gave support. The S&P 500 added 1.1%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.5%. The Russell 2000 led, up 2.6%. Furniture and home-furnishing stocks moved with the rally, with Leggett & Platt up 5.84%, La-Z-Boy up 4.34% and Bassett Furniture up 1.77%, according to Google Finance.
Flexsteel’s April buyback remains in focus. The company disclosed in a filing that it picked up 1,279,870 shares from F. Brooks Bertsch and related family entities at $47 each, spending about $60.2 million. That was close to 24% of Flexsteel’s issued and outstanding stock before the deal, which closed April 28.
Schmidt said the deal fits Flexsteel’s “balanced capital allocation strategy” and is about “enhancing long-term shareholder value.” Brooks Bertsch, who stepped down from the board after the deal, said the family had “decided to diversify our holdings.” Business Wire
Flexsteel is dealing with a trickier environment right now. The company posted net sales of $115.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, up just a touch from $114.0 million last year. Net income came in at $6.4 million, or $1.14 per diluted share. That compares to a net loss of $3.7 million a year ago. Operating income landed at $8.2 million.
Flexsteel CFO Ressler said on the April earnings call that tariff pricing accounted for “somewhere around 11%” of sales. He said new product sales were in the 40% to 45% range. Sidoti’s Anthony Lebiedzinski asked about possible industry disruption and if it could help Flexsteel pick up market share. Schmidt said “every market’s a growth market,” citing profits and a strong balance sheet. StockAnalysis
Flexsteel got a new price target from Freedom Broker after the buyback. Analyst Balzhan Tleuzhanova lifted the target to $72 from $57, kept a Buy, and said the move was “reducing its outstanding share count,” according to Investing.com in late April. Investing
Flexsteel warned of tougher conditions as the March quarter wrapped up. The company said demand faded through the period, and retail partners pulled back on inventory. Flexsteel also cited rising fuel and petrochemical input costs. Schmidt said near-term demand and profits are likely to stay pressured, with fourth-quarter sales seen flat year over year and operating margins tracking the third quarter.
Downside risk is easy to see. If furniture demand stays patchy and costs for foam, freight, tariffs or energy go up, buybacks may not pencil out. Investors Thursday want updates on orders, input costs, and if the company can still fund growth after cutting share count with cash and credit.
