Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) shares are on the move on Wednesday.
In early trade, the online furniture and homewares retailer's shares are up 11% to $7.20.
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Why are Temple & Webster shares jumping?
Investors have been bidding the company's shares higher today after it released its annual general meeting presentation ahead of its event.
As well as providing investors with details on its performance in the last financial year, management provided a trading update for FY 2024.
As you might have guessed from the way Temple & Webster shares are performing today, its performance has been strong.
According to the release, the company's sales from 1 July to 27 November were up 23% over the prior corresponding period.
Pleasingly, its growth rate has been even stronger in the all-important second quarter, with sales up 42% between 1 October and 27 November.
Management notes that this has been "supported by the launch of our above-the-line brand campaign in Syd, Mel & Bris which commenced on the 22nd October."
Also supporting its second quarter performance has been a successful Black Friday-Cyber Monday trading period. Management notes that it continues to grow in importance as customers bring their Christmas shopping forward.
For the four-day period in 2023, it delivered $17.4 million in sales. This is up 101% on last year and included multiple record days.
Another positive that could be giving Temple & Webster shares a boost today is that management has not sacrificed its margins to deliver this strong sales growth. As a result, it has reaffirmed its EBITDA margin guidance for FY 2024.
Management appears pleased with how things are going. Its CEO, Mark Coulter, commented:
We continue to grow our market share at a time when the overall furniture and homewares market is down, reflecting the resilience of our business model and flexibility of our merchandising strategy. Growing our market share is a key strategic focus, which supports our goal of becoming Australia's largest retailer of furniture and homewares. Our $30m on-market buyback has bought back 3.9m shares at a total cost of $19.9m to date. Our cash balance remains above $100m which provides significant flexibility to accelerate both organic growth and potentially inorganic opportunities.
