What happened
Shares of Foot Locker (FL -0.69%) were down 15.9% as of 11:30 a.m. EDT Friday after the footwear retailer announced disappointing first-quarter 2019 results.
More specifically, Foot Locker's quarterly sales climbed 2.6% year over year (or 4.7% excluding foreign currency exchange) to $2.078 billion, helped by a 4.6% increase in comparable-store sales. That translated to a 5.5% increase in adjusted (non-GAAP) net income to $1.53 per share.
Analysts, on average, were expecting higher net income of $1.61 per share on revenue closer to $2.11 billion.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Still, Foot Locker management remains optimistic.
"We started the year with great energy, innovative products, and exciting customer events, leading to solid top-line growth in the first quarter with strong performance across our regions, banners, channels, and categories," said Foot Locker CEO Richard Johnson.
As such, Johnson added that the company believes it remains on track to meet the long-term goals and implement the strategic initiatives it outlined at its Investor Day in March.
Now what
Foot Locker also said it's "on track" to meet its full-year outlook, provided during last quarter's call in March, which suggested 2019 comparable-store sales growth in the mid-single-digit percent range, and double-digit percent growth in earnings per share. That said, it's not really on track for the latter goal, as it added the caveat that earnings per share will likely increase in the high-single-digit range based largely on its share repurchase activity so far this year.
In the end, Foot Locker might be content with its progress. But given its relative earnings underperformance and with shares already having rebounded more than 20% from their 52-week lows set late last year, it's no surprise to see Wall Street punishing the stock today.
