Dick’s Sporting Goods sales top estimates; Foot Locker returns to growth
Dick’s Sporting Goods reported strong first-quarter revenue that topped estimates as its Dick's business continued to gain momentum and its Foot Locker business showed signs of turnaround.
The sporting goods giant's namesake business saw broad-based strength across its entire portfolio. Meanwhile, Foot Locker, which Dick’s acquired in September 2025, posted its first comparable sales gain since the fourth quarter of 2024, with growth of 0.6%. At Foot Locker U.S., comparable sales grew 6.4%.
Since its acquisition of Foot Locker closed, Dick’s has launched a Foot Locker capital light store remodel program, called “Fast Break,” that includes a more "focused" shoe wall, improved presentations and the reintroduction of apparel with curated and complimentary offerings.
On the earnings call, Dick's executive chairman Ed Stack said that the Fast Break initiative, whose store updates are typically completed in a few days, is delivering "exceptional" results with double-digit comps and merchandise margin improvement.
"By back to school, we plan to have approximately 250 Fast Break stores across Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, and Champs globally, with further expansion ahead of the holiday season," he told analysts.
Stack added that the company is planning a "bold" brand relaunch for Foot Locker "designed to bring consumers back to the Foot Locker brand in a meaningful way."
Stack noted that sport is "one of the hottest categories in the country today."
"We’re in the middle of a real sports moment, and the intersection of sport and culture has never been stronger," he said."You see it everywhere, from rising valuations of professional sports teams, to the level of investment from streaming platforms and networks, and the strong demand from advertisers to be a part of live sports."
On the call, president and CEO Lauren Hobart said the company is continuing to reposition and elevate its Dick's real estate and store portfolio, and is on track to open approximately 13 through House of Sport stores and 20 Field House locations this year.
"We also continue to see extremely strong interest from landlords, giving us access to some truly iconic retail locations," she added.
First Quarter
Dick’s reported net income of $319.82 million, or $3.54 per share, for the quarter ended. May 2, compared with $264.29 million, or $3.24 per share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for items such as acquisition costs, earnings were $2.90 per share.
Consolidated net sales rose 62.7% to $5.17 billion from $3.17 billion a year earlier, as it added Foot Locker to its business. Analysts had expected sales of $5.09 billion.
By division, the Dick’s business — which includes Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, Going Going Gone! and Public Lands banners — had net sales of $3.4 billion, up from $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Comparable sales rose 6%.
The Foot Locker business — which includes the Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, WSS and Atmos banners — had net sales of $1.8 billion.
“In Q1, we delivered comp sales growth of 6% in the Dick’s Business, with growth in average ticket and transactions, and broad-based strength across footwear, apparel and hardlines," stated president and CEO Lauren Hobart. "These strong comps were on top of a 4.5% increase last year and a 5.3% increase in 2024, as we continued to gain market share. Given our continued confidence in the Dick’s Business, we are raising our full-year expectations for comp sales growth and profitability.”
Looking ahead, the company expects fiscal 2026 net sales to be between $22.1 billion and $22.4 billion, with earnings per share between $13.27 and $14.27. By segment, the company expects net sales for its Dick’s business to be between $14.5 billion and $14.7 billion. Its Foot Locker business is expected to be between $7.6 billion and $7.7 billion.
As of May 2, the company operated 3,115 store locations across the Dick’s and Foot Locker businesses, including 888 locations for the total Dick’s business and 2,561 locations for the total Foot Locker business.
