Dick's Sporting Goods posts robust holiday guidance

Dick's Sporting Goods raised its full-year guidance on Tuesday after what CEO Lauren Hobart called an "excellent" back-to-school shopping season and better-than-expected comparable sales for its third quarter. 

The sporting goods giant is now expecting fiscal 2024 same-store sales to grow between 3.6% and 4.2%, up from a previous range of 2.5% to 3.5%. That's ahead of the 3.4% growth that Wall Street analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. 

Dick's beat expectations on the top and bottom lines, and its rosy guidance indicates its planning for a strong holiday shopping season after issuing cautious guidance earlier this year ahead of the 2024 election.

Here's how the retailer did in its third fiscal quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Dick's reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 2 of $228 million, or $2.75 per share, compared with $201 million, or $2.39 per share, a year earlier. 

Sales rose to $3.06 billion, up slightly from $3.04 billion a year earlier.

"We are very proud of our Q3 results and our performance year-to-date. Our third quarter comp sales grew 4.2%, driven by a continued focus on our strategic pillars and great execution from our team," Hobart said in a news release. "As a result of our strong performance in the quarter and the continued confidence we have in our business, we are again raising our full year outlook. We believe our differentiated product, quality service and powerful omni-channel experience will resonate well with our athletes this holiday season."

During the quarter, robust back-to-school shopping led to comparable sales growth of 4.2%, well ahead of the 2.7% growth that StreetAccount had expected. Some of Dick's fellow retailers in the last week said unseasonably warm weather and storms in the Southeast impacted sales during the quarter, but it doesn't appear as if the sporting goods company faced the same issues.

Dick's said the strong quarter led it to also raise its full-year sales and earnings guidance.

The company is now expecting fiscal 2024 sales to be between $13.2 billion and $13.3 billion, in line with estimates of $13.26 billion, according to LSEG, and ahead of a previous range of between $13.1 billion and $13.2 billion.

It's now expecting full-year earnings per share to be between $13.65 and $13.95, ahead of previous guidance of $13.55 to $13.90. It wasn't immediately clear if that guidance was comparable to estimates.