Oppenheimer Still Concerned At Dick's

In a report published Thursday, Oppenheimer analysts maintained a Perform rating on

, after attending the company's Analyst Meeting in NYC on April 14. "We have for a while maintained a rather subdued stance toward DKS shares. In our view, recent sales dislocations in key categories are exposing and aggravating a growing, underlying store productivity issue at the chain," the analysts said. Following the meeting with the management, the analysts were "even more convinced" about their concerns over the outlook for the chain. "As we study our DKS financial model, we remain of the opinion that there exists greater potential for downside vs. upside surprises." The EPS estimates for FY15 and FY16 are at $3.05 (below consensus figure of $3.18 and guidance for $3.10-$3.20) and $3.25 (below consensus figure of $3.59), respectively. While reiterating its Q1 guidance for EPS of $0.49-$0.53 and comps of flat to +2 percent, Dicks has trimmed its FY17 sales and operating margin outlook to from $10B to $8.7-$9.0B and from 10.5 percent to 9.0-9.5 percent, respectively. "More subdued store growth helps to explain some of the revision lower to sales," the analysts commented. DKS has also trimmed its store opening projections for FY17 from 800 to 735-750 large namesake units. Despite these issues, the company's shares continue to "trade at more than 17x our FY 16 (Jan. 2017) EPS forecast of $3.25 and nearly 16x a current Street FY16 (Jan. 2017) earnings estimate of about $3.60," the report stated.