Golf, Hunting At Issue For Dicks Sporting Goods' Q4 Results

Dicks Sporting Goods Inc DKS ongoing troubles with its golf and hunting segments should once again garner investor attention when the retailer posts results before the market opens Tuesday.

Dicks, which operates more than 600 stores, changed hands recently at $55.34, up $1.25; since December, shares are up 13 percent.

In November, the company said its third quarter same-store sales growth of just 1.7 percent got hurt by a continued slowdown for its golf and hunting equipment segments.

Dicks forecast that its hunting business would be flat in the fourth quarter on easier quarterly comparisons, while its golf business would "hit bottom" in the period.

"Everybody's talking about the golfing business needing to shrink in order to become more profitable," Chief Executive Edward W. Stack told analysts in November. "I think that's what's going to happen."

Stack said the golf segment wouldn't see increasing profits until the fourth quarter was completed.

"I think the golf business is going to be an okay business," Stack said. "I don't think it's going to be a great business but it's going to be okay."

The company, which doesn't breakout segment sales, took an impairment charge of $12.2 million during the third quarter related to restructuring its golf segment, where it has been shrinking the amount of store space devoted to the sport.

Dicks forecast fourth quarter earnings growth of about 10 percent to between $1.18 and $1.28 a share, up from $1.11 a year earlier.

Same-store sales were expected to increase between 1 percent and 3 percent, compared with 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Wall Street expects earnings of $1.22 a share, on revenue of $2.12 billion.

The company last week announced a 10 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, to an annualized rate of $0.55 a share.