Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowShares in The Finish Line Inc. jumped more than 10 percent Friday morning after the company's first-quarter performance exceeded analyst expectations.
The Indianapolis-based athletic apparel retailer announced Friday that profit in its fiscal first quarter fell 25 percent compared with the same period a year ago due to lower sales margins and higher expenses.
For the quarter ended June 2, Finish Line reported earnings of $12.3 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with $16.4 million, or 30 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
The chain reported revenue of $319 million, a 6.5-percent increase from the same period last year. Analysts expected the company to earn 23 cents a share on sales of $320.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters.
Same-store sales rose 8 percent, the 11th consecutive quarter the company reported a gain in the key metric. Online sales jumped 28.1 percent.
Finish Line shares rose nearly 12 percent, or $2.23 each, to close at $20.91, their highest close since May 30.
Last quarter, Finish Line said it expected first-quarter earnings per share to drop due to lower margins from promotional sales, and investments to update in-store technology and add a social media operation.
Total selling, general and administrative expenses rose to $85 million from $77 million in the year-ago period.
“While we are still in the early stages of a multi-year transformation, I have great confidence in this organization’s ability to successfully deliver on our near-term promises while at the same time remain on a strategic course towards $2 billion in total [annual] company sales and $2.50 in earnings per share by fiscal 2016,” Finish Line CEO Glenn Lyon said in a prepared statement.
The company said it expects fiscal 2013 earnings per share to rise 6 percent to 7 percent, up from its previous guidance of mid-single-digit growth.
Finish Line operated 640 stores as of June 2, down from 657 at the same time a year ago.
Shares of Finish Line opened trading Friday morning at $16.42 each, down from a 52-week high of $26.16 reached in late March.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.