Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods (
DKS
) ended Monday's session about 0.1 percent better heading into the
sporting retailer's fourth-quarter report, expected out before the
market opens Tuesday. Volume on the move was notable Monday, coming
in at about 150 percent stronger than normal.
The Street is currently looking for 15.8 percent of earnings growth
to 88 cents per share with revenue of $1.61 billion.
Shares rose 6.8 percent in the quarter to end January at $41.10.
The stock is up 24 percent for 2012 and finished 2011 just about
flat. Shares of Dick's have traded within a range of $29.10 to
$46.85 over the last year.
Data from Bloomberg has 16 analysts at Buy, seven with a Hold
rating, and one at Sell. The Street's price target average is
$49.50, ranging from $36 to $57.
Analyst Comments
- Goldman Sachs sees earnings of 88 cents for the quarter.
Though the firm is anticipating an anticlamatic report, Dick's
outlook and report on business trends will remain critical.
On guidance, Goldman believes the critical point will be how
warmer weather impacted sales. An impact on gross margins is
expected and Goldman is modeling about 10 basis points of
expansion "with a steep expense decline against a very large cost
accrual a year ago."
- J.P. Morgan is modeling earnings of 88 cents per share. The
firm still thinks there is plenty of top-line growth for Dick's
with its continued focus on youth sports and healthy living
trends. Innovation from sports clothing manufacturers Nike (
NKE
) and Under Armour (
UA
) is only adding to upside.
JPMorgan said, "We expect DKS to add an incremental 30-40 NKE and
UA shop in store setups in 2012 (on top of the >150 base).
Additionally, share services footwear will be in all new stores
with incremental growth planned from existing store conversions.
From an online perspective, 2011 featured DKS upgrading the
functionality of its website and adding dotcom kiosks in all of
its stores. We expect ship to store capabilities in 2012 and ship
from store enhancements in 2013. At only ~3% of sales, every ~30%
increase in e-Commerce sales adds nearly 100 bps to same store
sales. These in-store and online investments position DKS
offensively and defensively in the category."
- Deutsche Bank expects EPS of 88 cents, a 30 basis points
gross margin gain, and a 0.5 percent decline in comps. Deutsche
commented, "While we expect cost cutting to be a big part of the
gain, we believe gross margin gains despite weakness in higher
margin outerwear will speak to DKS's strong inventory controls
and benefits of private label as well as mix shifts within
categories. While comps have been below its peers, our analysis
implies that comps within footwear and apparel have been in line.
This means that the comp differential is a result of different
mixes compared to the mall based footwear retailers."
The firm said with the launch of Amazon's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Quidsi,
strong news for Dick's e-Commerce site would be a positive
catalyst.
Stay tuned to StreetInsider.com's
EPS Insider
section to see our analysis of the highly-anticipated quarterly
results within seconds of their release. You can also check out
Dicks' past performance at Streetinsider's
Dicks' Income Statement
.