Hibbett Sports Posts Q4 Miss, Issues Cautious Guidance
Shares of Hibbett Sports, Inc. were down more than 12 percent in pre-market trading after the sporting goods retailer reported quarterly results that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In Hibbett’s fourth quarter, net sales were up 1.8 percent from the prior year to $466.6 million, short of the $477.49 million expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance. Net income was $30.9 million, or $2.55 per diluted share, short of the expected $2.56.
Comparable sales were down 6.4 percent, with brick and mortar comparable sales down 9.2 percent and e-commerce up 6.9 percent.
For the full year, net sales grew 1.2 percent to $1.73 billion and net income was $103.2 million, or $8.17 per diluted share. Both totals were in line with the company’s guidance outlined in November.
Hibbett president and chief executive officer Mike Longo said in a statement that fourth quarter sales results were bolstered by a strong holiday season as well as Hibbett’s connected loyalty program with Nike. As in prior quarters, the company benefited from “new product launches and a favorable customer response for our popular footwear brands,” Longo said.
In outlining its guidance for fiscal year 2025, the company said that “business and economic challenges” such as inflation, high interest rates, promotional activity, wage pressure, consumer caution and geopolitical conflicts would continue to impact business. Longo also noted that investments in “store footprint, customer-facing technologies, and back-office infrastructure” will have a long-term positive impact on the company’s profitability, but will impact short-term profit growth in fiscal year 2025.
As such, Hibbett issued a softer guidance for the upcoming year and said it expects net sales to be between flat and up 2 percent from the prior year, with diluted EPS expected to be between $8.00 and $8.75.
“As we look ahead to Fiscal 2025, we will continue to leverage our proven business model to meet customer demand and drive additional market share,” Longo said. “We will look for opportunities to enhance our product mix in line with current consumer spending patterns and ensure we have the right inventory mix across our sales channels.”
