By Natalie Weger

Steelcase shares fell as the company said its international outlook for the rest of the year doesn't reflect a lot of improvement as it's experiencing soft order patterns.

Shares fell 8.5% early in Thursday's session before recovering to a 1.3% decline at $10.48 around midday. The stock is down about 19% over the past year.

"We took actions and it turned out our actions were successful," executives said on a call with analysts Thursday. "But it turned out the demand environment notched down another degree."

Meanwhile, domestically, the office-furniture company's growth in large corporate customers was offset by a decline in education and government customers, who were likely impacted by federal-funding policy changes, Chief Executive Sara Armbruster said. The company saw a 1% decline in its organic Americas orders and 1% growth in its international orders.

"In education, changing federal policy is impacting the buying patterns of K-through-12 school districts," Armbruster said. "The expiration of [Affordable Care Act] funds and uncertainty in the United States around future funding is causing some budget adjustments and project delays across the sector."

On tariffs, Steelcase said the impact of the levies was in line with its first-quarter projections, and the company implemented price increases in mid-June, it said.

Executives said price hikes have historically been necessary if mitigation efforts aren't sufficient, and that Steelcase could continue following that pattern if inflation persists.

"We'll see what happens come July 9, which is the date that some of the reciprocal tariffs and other changes are set to go back into effect," management said. "So we'll see what plays out and have to react or deal with any meaningful movement there."

Steelcase posted a higher profit on Wednesday as revenue rose. Adjusted earnings per share came to 20 cents, above analyst estimates of 14 cents.

Shares of fellow office-furniture company MillerKnoll recently jumped more than 10% after it posted a rise in earnings on Wednesday. The company expects to see growth as more companies upgrade office spaces for employees returning to in-office work.

Write to Natalie Weger at natalie.weger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 26, 2025 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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