On Tuesday, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that its net income for the fourth quarter increased 7% thanks to strong sales during the holiday season shopping period. Revenue was up 8%, which topped expectations of analysts.
In Tuesday’s premarket trading the stock was up.
The company, which sells sporting goods and runs Golf Galaxy and its stores of the same name, earned over $138.6 million or a per share amount of $1.11, for the three month period ending February 1. That was up from $129.6 million or a per share amount of $1.03 for the same period one year ago.
Dick’s share prices were up 67 or about 1.2% to just over $55 in early morning trading before the opening bell.
Sales at stores opened 13 months or more, an important gauge of the health of a retailer, were up by 7.3% when adjusted for last year’s extra week during the holiday shopping season. This metric excludes all results from stores that either have been opened or closes recently.
For the full year, Dick’s earned $337 million or a per share rate of $2.69 which was up from the previous year of $290.6 million or a per share rate of $2.31. Revenue was up by 6% to end the year at $6.21 billion compared to the $5.84 billion from last year. The increase was due to growth in same-stores and openings of new stores.
Sales at locations opened 13 months or more were up by 1.9%. Dick’s kept its 2014 earnings forecast in a range of between $3.30 and $3.08 a share. Analysts predict it will be $3.10 a share.
For its 2014 first quarter, the sporting goods chain is anticipating earnings of 51 cent to 53 cents a share. Wall Street is expecting the company to have earnings of 54 cents a share for that period.
Dick’s as of the end of the quarter had 558 stores in 46 states and 79 Golf Galaxy stores across 29 states.
