Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) early Thursday significantly lowered its first quarter earnings guidance and noted its full-year outlook would likely be impacted as well, blaming late tax refunds for slowing customer traffic.

Written by StockNews.com

The New York City-based athletic footwear and apparel retailer now expects:

• Q1 earnings per share (EPS) of $1.36 to $1.39, well below Wall Street’s current $1.48 estimate...
• comparable store sales (“comps”) to rise at a low-single digit percentage rate, down from a prior mid-single digit view.
• to achieve a double-digit earnings per share percentage gain, with comps increasing in the mid-single digits, for the remaining three quarters of 2017...
• its full-year outlook for a double-digit EPS gain would likely be impacted as a result of the weaker first quarter.

The company commented via press release:

“We believe the delay in the issuance of the vast majority of income tax refund checks until after the NBA All-Star Game significantly affected our February comparable store sales, which were down low-double digits.

March sales rebounded well, up high-single digits; however, the strength we experienced once income tax refund checks started flowing into our customers’ hands did not fully offset the slow start to the quarter.

Encouragingly, we are now having a strong Easter selling period, with April comparable sales likely up low double digits, which we see as confirmation that the customer’s appetite for our exciting product assortments has not changed…That guidance included little operating leverage this year for several reasons outlined during our earnings call.

With comparable sales that fall short of a mid-single digit percentage increase, we currently expect some operating deleverage in the first quarter.”

Foot Locker, Inc. shares fell $2.90 (-3.99%) to $69.75 in premarket trading Thursday. Year-to-date, FL had gained 3.32% prior to today’s news, versus a 4.89% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

FL currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of B (Buy), and is ranked #5 of 33 stocks in the Athletics & Recreation category.