Finish Line Stumbles in Q1, but Beats Expectations

By Eric Volkman – Jun 28, 2013 at 9:04PM

NASDAQ: FINL

Finish Line Inc.

Despite a drop in net profit, the company beats on both top and bottom lines.

The Finish Line (FINL) probably won't win any medals for completing its fiscal Q1 2014, but at least its results were better than expected. For the quarter, the company posted consolidated net sales of $351 million, up from the $319 million in the same period the previous year. Attributable net profit, on the other hand, fell steeply, landing at $5.1 million ($0.10 per diluted share) against the $12.3 million ($0.24) of Q1 2013.

Much of the drop in bottom line is attributable to start-up costs related to the company's launch of its business in Macy's department stores. Factoring out those expenses results in a GAAP EPS number of $0.20 per share.

That's good enough to beat analyst EPS expectations of $0.16. The average analyst projection for top line, meanwhile, was $343 million.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.