Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Research from Water Tower Research

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

United states Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Despite the spike in volatility earlier in the week, the markets were relatively calm by the end of the week, with mixed results for furniture/furnishings stocks.</li><li>The Water Tower Research Commercial/Contract Furniture Index (-0.9%), Residential Manufacturers &amp; Suppliers Index (+2.2%), and Home Goods Retailers Index (+1.3%) all lagged the two large-cap market indexes (+3.0%), which outperformed the small-cap R2K index (+2.1%).</li><li>ARHS noted weaker-than-anticipated demand at the high end. CFO Dawn Phillipson said on the 2QFY24 investor call, “We experienced softening demand comps starting in May, and the negative trend accelerated into July”, with comps now expected to be down somewhere in the negative low- to mid-teens in 2HFY24.</li></ul>

Despite the spike in volatility earlier in the week, the markets were relatively calm by the end of the week, with mixed results for furniture/furnishings stocks.The Water Tower Research Commercial/Contract Furniture Index (-0.9%), Residential Manufacturers &amp; Suppliers Index (+2.2%), and Home Goods Retailers Index (+1.3%) all lagged the two large-cap market indexes (+3.0%), which outperformed the small-cap R2K index (+2.1%).ARHS noted weaker-than-anticipated demand at the high end. CFO Dawn Phillipson said on the 2QFY24 investor call, “We experienced softening demand comps starting in May, and the negative trend accelerated into July”, with comps now expected to be down somewhere in the negative low- to mid-teens in 2HFY24.

Furniture/Furnishings Weekly - Aug 12, 2204