08:39 AM EDT, 05/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) lifted its full-year outlook on Wednesday after the athletic goods retailer reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results.

The company now anticipates per-share earnings to come in between $13.35 and $13.75 for fiscal 2024, up from its prior guidance of $12.85 to $13.25. Sales are pegged at $13.1 billion to $13.2 billion versus its previous forecast of $13 billion to $13.13 billion. The consensus on Capital IQ is for EPS of $13.24 and revenue of $13.16 billion.

Dick's also expects comparable sales to increase by 2% to 3% for the fiscal year, compared with prior estimates for a 1% to 2% rise. The Street is looking for same store sales growth of 2.1%. "Because of our strong (first-quarter) performance, our expectations for continued robust demand from athletes and the confidence we have in our business, we are raising our full year outlook," Chief Executive Lauren Hobart said in a statement.

The stock spiked 8.2% in recent premarket activity.

Dick's logged adjusted EPS of $3.30 for the three-month period ended May 4, down from $3.40 the year before, but ahead of the market's view for $2.97. Sales inclined 6.2% to $3.02 billion, topping analysts' $2.94 billion estimate.

Comparable sales advanced 5.3%, beating the 2.5% gain modeled by the Street, buoyed by 2.7% rise in transactions and a 2.6% increase in average ticket, Chief Financial Officer Navdeep Gupta said Thursday on an earnings call, according to a Capital IQ transcript. "While we anticipated our shrink to be higher than the previous year that increase in shrink moderated compared to our expectations" Gupta told analysts.

The company's gross profit as a percentage of sales expanded by 10 basis points. "This included leverage on occupancy costs due to higher sales and a decline in merchandise margin of 45 basis points, which included higher year-over-year strength of 22 basis points," according to Gupta. Selling, general and administrative expenses widened to $743.4 million from $693.8 million. At the end of the quarter, net inventories stood at $3.2 billion versus $3.03 billion the year before.

Looking ahead, Dick's expects overall sales to be "positively impacted in the first half" due to the shifted calendar, with an offset in the second half, Gupta said on the call. "Given the impact of the shift on a key back-to-school week, we expect our reported total sales in (the second quarter) to be positively impacted by approximately $100 million versus the prior year, with an offset in (the third quarter)," he added.

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