Dick's Sporting Goods cheers record quarter

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Dick's Sporting Goods jumped on Thursday, after bumper holiday season trading beat expectations. The retailer said fourth-quarter net sales jumped 7.8% to $3.88bn, or by 2.8% on a like-for-like basis, its largest-ever sales quarter.

Net income rose 26% to $296m, while earnings per diluted share increased 31% to $3.85.

Wall Street had been expecting revenues closer to $3.80bn and EPS of $3.35.

Lauren Hobart, chief executive, said it had been an "incredibly strong" quarter and holiday season.

She continued: "Even excluding the extra week, this was the largest sales quarter in the history of the company, and during the fourth quarter, we drove significant gross margin and EBT margin expansion."

Looking forward, Hobart forecast "another strong year. We plan to growth both our sales and earnings through positive comps, higher merchandise margin and productivity gains."

The retailer, which was founded in 1948 by Dick Stack, is forecasting 2024 EPS between $12.85 and $13.25, with net sales between $13bn and $13.13bn.

As at 1300 GMT, shares in Dick's had put on nearly 8% in pre-market trading.

In the year to 3 February 2023, Dick's posted net sales of $12.98bn, up 5% or 2.4% on a comparable store basis. Net income was largely flat, at $1.05bn, while EPS sparked 7% at $12.91.

The retailer also boosted its annualised dividend by 10% to $4.40 a share.