Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE:DKS) early Tuesday posted [Mar 7, 2017 | 7:39am] solid fourth quarter earnings results, but its outlook for 2017 was weaker than expected, and investors sold the shares off considerably in morning trading.

Written by StockNews.com

The Coraopolis, PA-based sporting goods retailer reported adjusted Q4 EPS of $1.32, which was $0.02 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.30.

Revenues rose 10.9% from last year to $2.48 billion, matching analysts’ view.

Dick’s noted that consolidated same-store sales rose 5.0% in the latest period, at the higher end of its guidance for a 3% to 6% increase. Same-store sales for DICK’S Sporting Goods gained 5.3%, while Golf Galaxy surged 13.2%. That reversed a negative trend seen in Q4 2015, when comps fell 2.5%.

The company also saw eCommerce continue to represents a larger portion of its revenues. Online sales accounted for 17.9% of total net sales in Q4, compared to 15.7% during the same period last year.

Dick’s outlook for 2017 was worse than expected, however. The company forecast Q1 EPS of $0.50-0.55, while analysts are looking for $0.61. For the full year 2017, DKS sees EPS of $3.65-3.75, also below Wall Street’s $3.77 view.

The company commented on its future strategy via press release:

“In 2017, we will continue to be aggressive and evolve our business. We will implement a new merchandising strategy aimed at rationalizing our vendor base and optimizing our assortment to deliver a more refined offering for our customers. We are in the process of reviewing our entire vendor base, which will be segmented into strategic partners and transactional vendors, with tertiary vendors being eliminated. This strategy, combined with our efforts to enhance our digital capabilities, will enable us to stay ahead of consumer trends and differentiate us from the competition.”

Investors were none too pleased with the company’s weaker than expected guidance, with Dicks Sporting Goods shares falling $1.86 (-3.54%) to $50.75 in premarket trading Tuesday. Year-to-date, DKS had declined -0.92% prior to today’s report, versus a 6.34% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

DKS currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of C (Neutral), and is ranked #14 of 33 stocks in the Athletics & Recreation category.