Finish Line falls behind in revenue race

The sports retail market has been strong for Foot Locker and similar retailers, but not for Finish Line, which reported a drop in holiday quarter profit.

The Finish Line’s earnings in the fourth quarter fell 5% to $40.8 million.Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $551.3 million, an increase of 6.3% over the prior year period. Same-store sales increased 2.6%.



“Our fourth quarter results, especially for our core business, represent a solid finish to a disappointing year,” said Glenn Lyon, chairman and CEO of Finish Line. “We quickly reduced expenses and gained better leverage to deliver earnings ahead of plan. At the same time, we made progress rebalancing our inventory to better align with customer demand.”

The retailer also authorized a new 5-million-share buyback program.

For the year, the company reported profit of $82 million, and revenue of $1.82 billion. Same store sales increased 3.2%.

For the fiscal year ending Feb. 27, 2016, Finish Line said it expects comparable-store sales to move up to the low to mid single-digit range and earnings per share to rise to the low to mid single-digit range over fiscal year 2015’s non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.67.