Foot Locker Earnings Fail to Impress

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Friday. The company posted $1.39 in earnings per share (EPS) on $1.99 billion in revenue. That compares to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.39 in EPS on revenue of $2.00 billion. In the same period of last year, the retailer reported EPS of $1.29 and $1.92 in revenue.

Gross margin remained stable at 35%, relative to the first quarter from last year.

During the first quarter, Foot Locker opened 32 new stores, remodeled or relocated 55 stores, and closed 19 stores. At the end of April, the company operated 3,396 stores in 23 countries in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, 49 franchised Foot Locker stores were operating in the Middle East and South Korea, as well as 15 franchised Runners Point stores in Germany.

Management remains focused on productivity as the company works to drive top-line sales, and it remains confident that it can achieve a mid-single-digit comparable sales gain and a double-digit earnings per share increase for 2016.
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On the books, Foot Locker cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.06 billion at the end of the quarter, compared to $986 million in the same period last year.

Richard Johnson, chairman of the board and CEO, commented:

We produced the most profitable quarter in the Company’s long history, an accomplishment of which everyone at Foot Locker, Inc. should be very proud. Our team navigated well through a variety of challenges, not least of which were rapidly-shifting product category preferences by our customers, to achieve our 25th consecutive quarter of meaningful sales and profit increases over the prior year.  Never has it been more apparent how important is the work that we have done to build leadership positions across channels, geographies, banners, and product categories.

Shares of Foot Locker were trading down nearly 5% at $55.71 Friday morning. The stock has a 52-week trading range and a consensus analyst price target of $75.61.