Dick’s Sporting Goods’ fourth-quarter results topped expectations with both the legacy Dick’s and Foot Locker businesses delivering sales above targets. On an analyst call, officials indicated fewer Foot Locker doors will close than initially planned due to the strong performance of its Fast Break remodels. The Dick’s banner’s momentum is expected to continue in 2026 due to a World-Cup benefit and strength in its House of Sport and Fieldhouse rollouts.
On Thursday, shares of Dick’s closed at $197.57, up $2.04, or 1.04 percent.
Fourth-Quarter Results
In the fourth quarter ended January 31, consolidated sales jumped 59.9 percent to $6.23 billion, driven by the Foot Locker acquisition.
The Dick’s business’ comps grew 3.1 percent, topping analysts’ consensus expectations of 2.2 percent growth. The gains were driven by a 4.4 percent increase in average ticket, partially offset by a 1.3 percent decline in transactions. On a two-year and a three-year stack basis, comps for the Dick’s business increased 9.7 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively.
In terms of category performance, broad-based strength was seen across three primary categories of footwear, apparel, and hardlines.
Pro forma comp sales for the Foot Locker business in Q4 decreased 3.4 percent, topping guidance calling for a decline in the mid-to-high single digits.
On a non-GAAP basis, gross margins were 31.93 percent of sales, down 303 basis points from last year and driven entirely by lower margins as the Foot Locker business underwent a “cleaning out the garage” initiative to aggressively clear unproductive inventories. For the Dick’s business, gross margin expansion accelerated sequentially, increasing 67 basis points, driven entirely by higher merchandise margin.
On a GAAP basis, the actions to optimize Foot Locker’s inventory unfavorably impacted gross profit by $218 million, in line with expectations.
On a non-GAAP basis, consolidated SG&A expenses deleveraged nine basis points compared to last year’s non-GAAP results For the Dick’s business, SG&A expense dollars increased 3.1 percent and leveraged 22 basis points.
Consolidated non-GAAP operating income for the quarter improved 11.6 percent to $438.6 million, or 7.04 percent of sales, compared to $393 million, or 10.09 percent, last year. For the Dick’s business, operating income was $444.5 million, improving 88 basis points to 11.0 percent of sales from 10.1 percent. Consolidated results included a $5.9 million operating loss from the Foot Locker business, in line with expectations.
On a non-GAAP consolidated basis, net income improved 5 percent to $314 million, or $3.45 a share, from $300 million, or $3.62, a year ago.
At Dick’s business, net income rose 29 percent to $329 million, or $4.05 a share, from $300 million, or $3.62, and ahead of guidance. Dick’s had guided fourth-quarter earnings for its core Dick’s business to arrive in the range of $3.73 to $4.03.
On a reported basis, net income slumped 57.3 percent to $128 million, or $1.41 a share, from $300 million, or $3.62, a year ago. This includes $235.5 million of pretax Foot Locker acquisition-related costs and a $13.4 million pretax asset write-down related to clearing unproductive inventories.
Full-Year Results
For the full year, consolidated sales grew 28.1 percent to $17.2 billion. Net income totaled $849 million, or $9.97 a share, down 27.1 percent from $1,165 million, or $14.05, a year ago.
On a consolidated non-GAAP basis, net income declined 4 percent to $1.12 billion, or $13.20 a share, from 1.17 billion, or $14.05, a year ago.
At the legacy Dick’s business on a non-GAAP basis, same-store sales in the year increased 4.5 percent compared with a 5.2 percent gain a year ago. Dick’s had guided comps to be positive 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent. Earnings at the core Dick’s business grew 2 percent to $1.18 billion, or $14.58 a share, from $1.17 billion, or $14.05 a share, a year ago. Dick’s had forecast earnings in the range of $14.25 to $14.55.
Foot Locker Progress
On the analyst call, Ed Stack, executive chairman, discussed the transformation efforts at Foot Locker, highlighted by the continued strong response to its Fast Break remodels that began in the third quarter with an 11-store pilot.
“While it is still early, we are very encouraged by what we are seeing,” said Stack. “During Q4, our Fast Break stores drove very strong positive comps, actually meaningfully exceeding the Dick’s business, while also delivering strong gross margin improvement.”
He added, “The improvement is coming from the basics: clearer storytelling, better presentation, and a more focused assortment where we removed roughly 30 percent of the styles on the shoe wall that were unproductive and eliminated the run-on sentence that we have been talking about that was not showing the customer what product was important.”
The Fast Break remodel was extended to an additional 10 stores in Los Angeles ahead of the NBA All-Star Game to a “strong early performance.” Dick’s plans to “rapidly scale” Fast Break with a goal of having 250 remodels completed by back-to-school 2026.
Stack added that Dick’s “great confidence in the future of the Foot Locker business” is partly due to the response the company is seeing from brand partners supporting Foot Locker’s repositioning. He called out NBA All-Star activation with Nike, Jordan and Adidas around the NBA All-Star game that included launch product, NBA star appearances and community efforts that helped sales “meaningfully eclipsed last year’s event.”
Stack said Dick’s continues to review Foot Locker’s global fleet of stores and now expects to close fewer stores than anticipated because of the success of Fast Break. Said Stack, “We have identified opportunities to reposition and improve profitability in a meaningful number of stores, informed in large part by the success we are seeing in our Fast Break locations.”
For the current year, Foot Locker is expected to deliver comp sales growth between 1 percent to 3 percent and operating income in the range of $100 million and $150 million.
Stack concluded, “We continue to anticipate an inflection point for both sales and profitability beginning with the back-to-school season. In closing, we remain very confident that Dick’s and Foot Locker are stronger together. This combination gives us more scale, deeper relationships with the most important brands in our industry, access to consumers we did not reach before, and a global footprint.
“For Foot Locker, the benefits of our combination come through in very real ways. Brands matter. Product matters. Execution matters. And people matter. When those things come together, we believe Foot Locker will be restored to its rightful place in the industry.”
Dick’s Banners Seen Benefiting From ‘Intersection Of Sport And Culture’
Lauren Hobart, president and CEO, noted that Q4 comps of the Dick’s business increased 3.1 percent, delivering a two-year comp stack of nearly 10 percent. She said, “We saw more athletes purchase from us, and they spent more each trip compared to the prior year.”
For the full year, the 4.5 percent comp exceeded the high end of expectations, driven by growth in average ticket and transactions “as we continue to gain market share,” she said.
She said Dick’s performance continues to benefit from a focus on four strategic pillars:
- Building a compelling omnichannel athlete experience,
- Establishing a differentiated on-trend product assortment,
- Creating a deep engagement with the Dick’s brand, and
- Strengthening its teammates (employees) and culture.
However, she said the Dick’s business continues to also benefit from broader strength in sports retail.
“Today, the intersection of sport and culture has never been stronger, and excitement continues to build,” said Hobart. “This momentum kicked off with the expanded college football playoffs, record-breaking interest in women’s sports, and a strong Team USA performance in the recent Winter Olympics. And with most of the 2026 World Cup matches on US soil this June and July, the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA on the horizon, and the Ryder Cup returning to the US in 2029, we are entering one of the most compelling multiyear periods for sport in this country’s history.”
She also said Dick’s is benefiting from its relationships with national brands, “energy from new and emerging brands,” and the continued momentum of vertical brands.
“We are seeing growth across the board,” said Hobart. “We are seeing great growth from our strategic partners, and we are very excited about things like running footwear, the innovation that we are seeing. The new Run Construct from Nike is doing very well, and across the board running is really doing well. Signature basketball is also doing really, really well. And that is true, of course, of Dick’s and Foot Locker. With Dick’s, we are particularly excited about the excitement around women’s sports, and Sabrina and A’ja have done so well, and then we look forward to Caitlin coming. It’s going to be a lot of excitement.”
Hobart added that the team sports category is “also driving incredible buzz in a way that it used to be footwear launches that used to drive this kind of excitement. We are seeing that in team sports and all aspects of our business.”
Stack added that Nike is “doing very well. We are really pleased with them” across both Dick’s and Foot Locker while the retailers is “leaning into” its World Cup opportunity with Adidas, which makes the game ball. He said, “We think the World Cup is going to be great.”
With the help of Fanatics, Dicks’ will have collectible shops in all House of Sport stores going forward with some being set up in Fieldhouse locations. Stack said, “This whole idea of collectibles and trading card business, which we have not been in before, will certainly be accretive to our sales number.”
Addressing expansion vehicles, Hobart said House of Sport and Fieldhouse concepts have “never been stronger. She said, “House of Sport and Fieldhouse have redefined the athlete experience, strengthened our relationships with existing brand partners, opened doors to new partnerships, and delivered strong financial performance.”
Dick’s opened 16 new House of Sport locations in 2025, ending the year with 35, and also opened 15 new Fieldhouse locations, bringing the total to 42.
“We are really excited to see the impact of scaling these powerful concepts,” said Hobart “Looking ahead, landlord interest remains extremely strong, giving us access to some of the best retail locations in the country. In 2026, we plan to open approximately 14 House of Sport locations and approximately 22 Fieldhouse locations.”
Other priorities for the Dick’s business include improving the online experience with better search and reviews as well as investing in training and tools for store associates. Hobart also highlighted the “long-term opportunities” for GameChanger and Dick’s Media Network.
For 2026, the Dick’s business is expected to deliver comps in the range of 2 to 4 percent, which at the midpoint represents a 7.5 percent two-year comp stack. Operating margins for the Dick’s business are projected to be approximately 11.1 percent at the midpoint. At the high end of expectations, the Dick’s business is expected to drive approximately 10 basis points of operating margin expansion on a non-GAAP basis.
Balance Sheet and Capital Allocation
Full Year 2026 Outlook
The company’s Full Year Outlook for 2026 is presented below.
Consolidated Outlook
Segment Outlook
The company is providing the following segment outlook for the Dick’s and Foot Locker businesses to provide visibility into segment-level performance that is included in the consolidated outlook above. The information below does not include corporate and other expenses, which for fiscal 2026, include Foot Locker acquisition-related costs and litigation and other settlements.
