Out Fox The $treet

Anyone who follows the sporting goods sector or retail in general probably identifies Dick's Sporting Goods ( NYSE: DKS     ) as a premier operator in the industry. The company has long generated strong margins and profits while expanding its retail base to grab market share from struggling competitors such as Sports Authority . Unfortunately as Dick's store base recently surged beyond 500 locations, the rate of growth has considerably stalled, leaving investors wondering if the growth years are in the rear view mirror. During the recent analyst day, the management team laid out a 5-year plan of growing the revenue base to $10.0 billion from the $5.8 billion generated in 2012 and expanding margins via several initiatives. One of the major goals is to develop a store concept beyond the maturing Dick's brand. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please read the declaimer page for more details.

After trading down 2% in after hours due to a warning from competitor Big 5 Sports (BGFV) , Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) is up 11% now based on the announcement of a $200M stock buyback and reiterating of Q4 guidance. It appears that most market participants were expecting at the least a earnings miss. Instead they got a big buyback to support the stock price. This is what happens when investors focus too much on the weak competition. Difficult to extrapolate too much especially when it's just a regional player as well. DKS did lower the upper guidance by $0.01, but that wasn't a shock. Comps are now expected to be flat versus the original expectation of slightly up. The buyback is interesting as I don't see DKS stock as incredibly cheap, but the company is one of the few retailers that has the cash on hand. Per DKS PR: announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program of up to $200 million of the Company's common stock o...

After years of being an investor in Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) and not being able to shop there since they aren't located in Oklahoma, it appears they are finally looking at a location in Broken Arrow just down from my office. They've owned the Golf Galaxy store in Tulsa for a while now, but this will be the first Dick's store within several hundred miles. According to the Tulsa World , BA approved a $900K tax rebate incentive for a store at the Shops at Broken Arrow site. The deal would give Dick's a $90K sales tax rebate for 10 years. Seems like quite the deal for a strong retailer like DKS. From a competition stand point, this location is ideal with BA having a population of close to 100K with zero access to big league sporting goods store. Not to mention any stores in Tulsa like Academy and Sports Authority are very far away. And of course they aren't much competition anyway. The store would also be within a mile of the largest high school in the state....

Another quarter and another solid report from Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS). DKS has to be one of the best run retailers in the world. They continually take market share in a fragmented sporting goods market that has mainly weak competitors. This trend should continue for years. For Q4, DKS reported earnings of $0.76 after forecasting roughly $0.70 on the Q3 report. They achieve this growth mostly by seeing 9% comp sales growth gained mostly from an 8.6% increase at Dick's Sporting Goods stores and a whopping 36% increase in e-commerce. As they continue to gain market share, its possible that the e-commerce site becomes the go to destination with a preference for in store returns to a superior retailer. See the rest of the story at Seeking Alpha . Disclosure: Long DKS. Please review disclaimer page.

Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) remains one of the best retailers around. As they continue to expand their US footprint they can market share and have become the 80lb gorilla in the sporting goods sector. Heck, I'm a big investor in DKS, but I still can't even shop at their stores other then Golf Galaxy. DKS reported Q3 earnings of $.22 that beat estimates of $.17 and above the $.16 from last year. Same store sales jumped by 5%. Much better then the 1-2% they forecast showing that management continues to UPOD (under promise, over deliver). DKS also guided up for the full year and Q4 stating that they expect strong demand in Q4. The top retailers continue to perform in evident ignorance that the economy is suppose to be weak. Apparently though, good retailers aren't short of shoppers. DKS will remain a core holding of all the Opportunistic Portfolios (Long only, Levered, Hedged - more to come on name changes). Via PR : -- Consolidated non-GAAP earnings per diluted sha...

Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) reports before the market opens tomorrow on the 9th. In general, analysts expect them to easily surpass earnings as the cold weather drove high sales in the higher margin outerwear category. My main concern is that analysts seem completely fixated on the outerwear business that clearly benefits from snow and cold weather, but what about the golf division. The unusual snow in Texas and cold weather in Florida would have an impact on the golf division. Regardless, we're very bullish on DKS long term. They trade at 19x the $1.32 estimate for this year. Not overly cheap but assuming they beat estimates and as the focus moves toward the 2011 (Jan 2012) estimates I'd expect a much higher stock price. Just don't expect a big ramp on beating estimates tomorrow. Reported earnings of outwear makers like VF Corp ( VFC.N ) and Columbia Sportswear Co ( COLM.O ) as well as suppliers like Under Armor Inc ( UA.N ) and Nike Inc ( NKE.N ) suggest heightened deman...

According to this report , DKS has bought 6 prime store locations from a bankrupt retailer in Oregon. This is a prime example all the strong retailers will take advantage of this recession. They'll continue to gain marketshare. I'm not overly bullish about the retail sector as a whole, but the strong companies will spend the next year or so taking share from the companies going belly up. DKS will be one the big benefitors from this trend as sporting goods is very fragmented and in need of consolidation. They'll eventually be the Best Buy of the sector. The downfall of a regional sporting goods chain in Oregon is providing Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. the opportunity to accelerate its expansion plans there. With only one store in Oregon so far, Dick’s (NYSE: DKS ) has committed to take over six former locations of Joe’s Sports, Outdoor & More , a 31-store regional chain based in suburban Portland that went out of business in May after filing for bankruptcy, according t...