At long last, a market that Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT) haven't completely befouled. Sporting goods is a wide and fragmented category, and while Wal-Mart does have a huge chunk of market share, it doesn't control the space to any meaningful extent. Does that mean, then, that Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) has a serious opportunity to become a national player?
We'll deal with that later, but first let's look at some numbers from this quarter. Sales were up 13%, with comp-store sales up about 6.5%. By way of amusing anecdote, a decent-sized chunk of that same-store growth came from sales of Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise at this Pittsburgh-based retailer. Now if the Penguins and the Pirates can figure out that whole winning thing, it'll really be set to conquer the world.
Operationally, things were looking up as well. Gross margins improved nearly a full point, and it seems like operations at former Galyan's stores have been getting better. Operating income is a little wonky, though, as you have to adjust for this year's stock expense and last year's merger expenses to arrive at management's 22% growth figure.
So, what about that future? People certainly still want to buy Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Under Armor (NASDAQ:UARM) gear, and Dick's is a logical stop. On the other hand, I wonder how that'll play out with the company's strategy to boost private-label sales. And then there's also the risk of trying to compete in too many directions at once -- Dick's will be hard-pressed to match Cabela's (NYSE:CAB) or Golf Galaxy (NASDAQ:GGXY) in selection in their niches, and it'd likely be costly to try, from an inventory standpoint.
All that said, there's no dominant nationwide stop for sporting gear, and there are plenty of people who'd rather not shop at Wal-Mart. What that means to me, then, is that there is definitely enough room to grow the business and improve margins along the way. And though I don't find these shares cheap enough to entice me personally, I wouldn't rule out decent prospects for today's shareholders.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
