Shares of The Finish Line Inc. jumped 18 percent Friday morning, a day after the company beat Wall Street expectations by reporting a fiscal first-quarter profit.
The athletic footwear and apparel retailer's stock rose to $8.27, from a Thursday closing price of $6.99 shortly after company officials finished discussing the quarter in a conference call with analysts.
The company reported a profit for the quarter ended May 31 of $868,000, or 2 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $3.9 million, or 8 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue rose less than 1 percent to $287.9 million from $285.8 million last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, predicted a loss of 5 cents per share on revenue of $281.3 million.
The Indianapolis-based retailer operates 700 Finish Line stores and 94 Man Alive locations throughout the country.
"It looks as though Finish Line has got its Finish Line business back in good balance, running smoothly, and the Man Alive business, which was troublesome, is showing good signs of improvement," said Bernie Sosnick, an analyst who covers the company for Gilford Securities Inc.
Sales in stores open at least one year, a key retail metric known as same-store sales, rose 1.2 percent.
Sosnick noted that overall customer traffic in malls is down, making that increase impressive.
"Producing a same-store sales increase with all that you've heard about consumers, this is a remarkable achievement," he said.
Finish Line CEO Alan Cohen said during the conference call with analysts that customers were responding well to the company's premium performance and sports-style products. He also noted that profit margins increased in Man Alive stores, which saw same-store sales drop 7 percent.
He said the company wasn't looking for profitability from Man Alive this year, "but we're looking for tremendous improvement.
"We certainly would like to see it turn around and become profitable next year," he said.
Finish Line shares had fallen below $2 in January, before the company announced in March that it was bailing out of a proposed $1.5-billion bid to acquire Nashville, Tenn.-based retailer Genesco Inc.
Finish Line and the investment banking firm UBS AG agreed to pay $175 million to Genesco, with Finish Line contributing $39 million to that total. Genesco also received a 12 percent stake in Finish Line.
Finish Line shares have risen steadily since then.
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