Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. posted its highest-ever second-quarter sales as shoppers stocked up on sneakers and athletic apparel during the pandemic.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, increased 20.7%. And online sales skyrocketed, nearly tripling in the quarter.
Dick's merchandise lends itself to stay-at-home and socially distant activities. Besides traditional exercise equipment and clothing, the retailer's stores are full of items for boating, golfing and climbing.
"The majority of our assortment sits squarely at the center of these trends, and while mindful of the uncertainty in the current environment, we are in a great lane right now," Edward Stack, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement Wednesday.
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For the quarter, Dick's earned $276.8 million, or $3.12 per share. Stripping out one-time costs, the Coraopolis, Pa., company earned $3.21 per share. That handily topped the $1.24 per share that analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research had predicted.
Revenue totaled $2.71 billion, which surpassed Wall Street's estimate of $2.51 billion.
The strong performance was a bit of a surprise to the market, and investors rallied around the stock, pushing shares up 15.7% in New York trading.
It was only earlier this month that some analysts were predicting that sporting goods retailers, as well as those that sell athletic clothing and footwear, likely would have a tough go of it this back-to-school season. The argument was that those retailers might struggle, given that many schools weren't planning to reopen for in-person instruction at the start of the school year and some fall sports were not being played.
But adults and children alike appear to be eager to keep busy -- and keep moving -- while quarantining.
"As a specialist player Dick's was a clear destination for many shoppers and benefited from having a better assortment and stock levels than generalists, where inventory frequently ran short," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Dick's is looking to keep the momentum going. For the first three weeks of its third quarter, same-store sales are up 11%.
The results are another sign of how covid-19 is creating a divide in the retail world, with grocery stores and big-box chains booming while many specialty and department stores struggle. Heightened demand has created shortages across the U.S. for goods such as weights and bikes.
Information for this article was contributed by Michelle Chapman of The Associated Press and Jonathan Roeder of Bloomberg News.