Shares of Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE:FL) soared Friday after the New York-based retailer of athletic shoes posted first-quarter earnings that handily beat Wall Street analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
Investors thrilled by the surprise earnings rise sent shares of Foot Locker up 15.52% to US$53.59 in pre-market trade.
For the quarter ended March 31, the New York sportswear retail chain booked earnings of US$1.45 per share on revenue of US$2.03bn. The consensus earnings estimate was US$1.25 per share on revenue of US$2bn. Same-store sales also did better than expected with revenue steadily growing 1.2% on a year-over-year basis.
Foot Locker says its gross margin rate fell to 32.9% from 34% a year ago as general expenses increased while it built out its digital operations.
"The flow of premium product continues to improve, with increasing breadth and depth in the most sought-after styles from our key vendors," said Foot Locker CEO Richard Johnson in the earnings statement.
"This led to first-quarter results which were above our expectations. With the strength of our strategic vendor partnerships and our central position in youth culture, we are poised to inflect to positive comparable-store sales growth as we progress through the year."
The sneaker retailer is one of many businesses to have fallen victim to Amazon and the e-commerce wave so the earnings beat Friday was unexpected good news for the struggling retailer.