Retail

Why Foot Locker Is Friday's Big Earnings Winner

Chris Lange

Published: May 25, 2018 11:30 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 11:08 pm

When Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) released its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Friday, the company said that it had $1.45 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.03 billion in revenue. That compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.25 in EPS on revenue of $1.96 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $1.36 and $2.0 billion in revenue.

During the quarter, comparable-store sales decreased 2.8%.

Also in this time, Foot Locker opened 11 new stores, remodeled or relocated 43 stores, and closed 37 stores.  As of May 5, 2018, the company operated 3,284 stores in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The company did not offer any guidance for the fiscal second quarter, but consensus estimates call for $0.75 in EPS on $1.75 billion in revenue.

Foot Locker’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.03 billion at the end of the quarter, compared with $1.05 billion in the same period of last year.

Richard Johnson, board chair and chief executive, commented:

The flow of premium product continues to improve, with increasing breadth and depth in the most sought after styles from our key vendors. This led to first quarter results which were above our expectations.  With the strength of our strategic vendor partnerships and our central position in youth culture, we continue to believe that we are poised to inflect to positive comparable-store sales growth as we progress through the year.

Shares of Foot Locker were last seen up 13% at $52.57, with a consensus analyst price target of $51.95 and a 52-week trading range of $28.42 to $60.64.