Shares of sporting-goods retailer Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS 0.20%) scored the market's approval with its fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday. After rising by more than 12% in early trading, Dick's stock was still up by about 4.1% as of 11:55 a.m. ET.
A solid hit after last quarter's strikeout
After the fiscal second-quarter report, Dick's Sporting Goods stock plunged because the company fell short of expectations and management lowered its full-year guidance. However, fiscal Q3 was a different story. Business trends held up better than expected, leading to outperformance for the period, and a slight increase to full-year financial guidance.
NYSE: DKS
Key Data Points
For the fiscal quarter, which ended Oct. 28, same-store sales grew by 1.7% from the prior-year period, in part due to an increase in transactions. In other words, people are still buying sporting goods and related products despite this year's complicated economic conditions.
Dick's operating-profit margin slipped to about 9% in fiscal Q3 compared to 11% in the prior-year period. However, a 9% operating margin is historically still pretty good for Dick's. Moreover, the company is working through some business-optimization expenses that are dragging on its earnings right now.
All in all, Dick's gave investors a solid base hit in fiscal Q3, and that was enough to renew interest from investors.
Things are looking good for shareholders
After the share price drop that followed its fiscal Q2 report, Dick's management took advantage by repurchasing 3.5 million shares for a total of $388 million in fiscal Q3 -- somewhere in the neighborhood of $110 per share. That's looking like a pretty good choice today, as the stock is trading above $120 as of this writing.
For the full fiscal year, Dick's expects sales to be up just a little from the record results it booked last year. However, it's expecting earnings per share in the range of $11.45 to $12.05. Even if it only hits the low end of this guidance range, that would still be a 6% year-over-year increase.
Dick's is still finding ways to tack growth onto its previous record financial results, albeit at a slower pace. But these strong results point to good things ahead for shareholders.
