Dick’s posts ‘incredibly strong’ Q4; plans 'significant' 2024 sq. ft. growth

Dick’s Sporting Goods reported the strongest holiday sales quarter in its history along with earnings that were far ahead of Street estimates.

The nation’s largest sporting goods raised its quarterly dividend 10% to $1.10 per share and forecast another year of positive growth. 

The company is planning major expansion during 2024, including growing its experiential Dick's House of Sport concept, with the opening of eight new stores, including a 100,000-sq.-ft. location at the Prudential Center in Boston this spring. (In addition to the new openings, it will also break ground on an additional seven House of Sport sites during the year.)

In addition, Dick's plans to open 10 Golf Galaxy Performance Center locations and 16 next-generation Dick's stores this year. Currently, there are 12 House of Sport locations, 14 Performance Center locations and 11 next-gen Dick's open.

On the company's earnings call, CFO Navdeep Gupta described the expansion as the most significant square footage addition since 2017.

Q4 Results

Dick’s net income totaled $296 million, or $3.57 per share, for the quarter ended Feb. 3, compared with $236 million, or $2.60 a share, in the year-ago period. earlier. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.85. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $3.36.

Sales increased 7.8% to $3.876 billion, topping estimates of $3.790 billion. Same-store sales were up 2.8%, way ahead of the 0.8% gain analysts had expected.

“With our industry-leading assortment and strong execution, we capped off the year with an incredibly strong fourth quarter and holiday season,” stated CEO Lauren Hobart. “Even excluding the extra week, this was the largest sales quarter in the history of the company, and during the fourth quarter, we drove significant gross margin and EBT margin expansion.”

For the full-year, Dick's sales rose 5% to $12.98 billion.

Hobart said that Dick’s is guiding to another strong year in 2024 with plans to grow sales and earnings through positive comps, higher merchandise margin and productivity gains. 

“With the continued success of our new store formats and our omnichannel experience, we will accelerate our investment in our growth strategies to drive our business forward and continue gaining market share in a fragmented $140-billion-dollar industry,” she stated.

For 2024, Dick’s expects earnings per shre of $12.85 to $13.25 on sales of $13.0 billion to $13.13 billion. Same-store sales are expected to rise 1% to 2%.

The retailer raised its quarterly dividend by 10% to $1.10 a share, payable April 12 to shareholders of record as of March 29.

“We are proud of our progress in repositioning our portfolio through House of Sport, our next generation 50,000 square foot Dick’s store and Golf Galaxy Performance Center,” said executive chairman Ed Stack. “Our growth opportunities are significant, and we continue to prioritize investments in our future to fuel long-term omnichannel growth.”

As of Feb. 3, the company operated a total of 855 stores, including  724 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores (including 12 Dick’s House of Sports stores) and 131 specialty concept locations, which includes 104 Golf Galaxy stores, 7 Public Lands stores, 17 Going Going Gone! stores and other specialty concept stores.