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Text: A playback of today's call will be archived on our Investor Relations website located at investors.
dicks.com for approximately 12 months.
And finally, a few admin items.
First, a note on our same-store sales reporting practices.
Our consolidated same-store sales calculation include stores that we temporarily closed last year as a result of COVID-19.
The method of calculating comp sales varies across the retail industry, including the treatment of temporary store closures because of COVID-19.
Accordingly, our method of calculation might not be the same as other retailers.
Next, as a reminder, due to the uneven nature of 2020, we planned 2021 off of the 2019 baseline.
Accordingly, we will compare 2021 sales and earnings results against both 2019 and 2020.
And lastly, for your future scheduling purposes, we are tentatively planning to publish our fourth quarter 2021 earnings results before the market opens on March 8, 2022, with our subsequent earnings call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
We're extremely pleased to announce another very strong quarter in which we delivered significant sales and earnings growth over both last year and 2019.
Our strategies continue to work as we reimagine the athlete experience in our core business and with the new concepts.
We have driven strong profitable growth at DICK's.
And earlier this year, we launched two DICK'S House of Sport stores, highly experiential destinations that are redefining sports retail.
The innovations we've made in our Golf Galaxy business are performing extremely well.
And our second Public Land store recently opened, focusing on the outdoor activities.
Looking ahead, I couldn't be more excited about the future of DICK's Sporting Goods.
We now expect to deliver comp sales of over 20% for 2021, and remain very confident in the long-term prospects of our business.
Before diving into our Q3 results, I think it's important to recognize that our current success is a result of a transformational journey that began in the back half of 2017 when we started to make meaningful changes across our business.
We also improved our service and selling culture, made our stores more experiential and reallocated floor space to regionally relevant and growing categories.
These changes fueled improved results and significantly improved our comp sales trajectory, well before the pandemic.
For years, we've also invested in technology and data science to build our best-in-class omnichannel platform.
This allowed us to quickly capitalize on athlete needs and strong consumer demand throughout 2020, and deliver our full-year comp sales increase of nearly 10%.
We announced today that we've raised our full-year guidance for the third time this year, and now expect our comp sales to increase between 24% and 25%.
During a time when consumers are making lasting lifestyle changes with an increased focus on health and fitness and greater participation in outdoor activities, we believe that DICK's Sporting Goods has become synonymous with sport in the United States.
Nearly, our entire category portfolio has rebaselined meaningfully higher versus pre-COVID sales levels.
We've capitalized on strong consumer demand and have gained considerable market share in key categories, driven by enhanced product access, service, and omnichannel capabilities.
Looking ahead, we are well positioned to continue gaining share and we remain optimistic about the long-term demand trends in our most important categories like athletic apparel, footwear, team sports and golf.
We also remain very optimistic about longer-term EBT margin, driven by a number of permanent changes versus pre-COVID levels.
These changes include a highly differentiated product assortment that is less susceptible to broader promotional pressures; more granular management in promotions and significantly higher profitability of our eCommerce channel.
Now getting back to our Q3 results.
Consolidated same-store sales increased 12.2% on top of a 23.2% increase in the same period of last year, and a 6% increase in Q3 2019.
Driven by our strong sales and gross margin rate expansion, on a non-GAAP basis, our third quarter earnings per diluted share of $3.19, increased 59% over last year and 513% over Q3 2019.
Our Q3 comps were supported by broad-based growth across our business, as our strong execution, diverse category portfolio and world-class omnichannel platform helped us continue to capitalize on and meet robust consumer demand despite a dynamic global supply chain.
We're continuing to see strong retention of the 8.5 million new athletes we acquired last year, and we added another 1.7 million new athletes during this quarter.
Our active athlete database is at a record high.
Our increasingly differentiated product assortment, combined with our disciplined promotional strategy and cadence is continuing to drive significantly higher merchandise margin rate.
During the quarter, we expanded our merchandise margin rate by 301 basis points versus 2020 and by 578 basis points versus 2019.
As we discussed previously, we're focused on enhancing the athlete experience across our entire omnichannel ecosystem.
In our stores, we continue to make DICK's a great place to work, as we know that our people are our competitive differentiator and a great teammate experience drives a great athlete experience.
In fact, we recently earned a place on Fortune's list of Best Workplaces in Retail for 2021.
We're also engaging our athletes with new and elevated service standards and making our stores more experiential.
These strategies are working and continue to set us apart within the marketplace.
During the quarter, our brick-and-mortar stores comped up approximately 15% versus last year and delivered a 31% sales increase when compared to 2019.
Importantly, our stores continue to be the hub of our omnichannel strategy, enabling over 90% of our total sales and fulfilling approximately 70% of our online sales in Q3.
Moving to our eCommerce business.
During the quarter, we were pleased to deliver online sales growth of 1%, which was on top of a 95% increase in the same period last year.
Our online sales remained substantially above pre-COVID levels, increasing nearly 100% when compared to the same period in 2019.
Importantly, we also continue to drive a significant improvement in the profitability of our eCommerce channel by leveraging fixed costs, sustained athlete adoption of in-store pickup and curbside, as well as fewer and more targeted promotions.
Beyond our omnichannel platform, our portfolio of brands is a tremendous asset.
We continue to invest substantially in our highly profitable and growing vertical brands.
Key brands including DSG, CALIA and VRST are driving exclusivity within our assortment and gaining meaningful traction with our athletes.
At the same time, while many national brands continue to narrow distribution and focus more on their most strategic partners, DICK's offers them something unique and valuable.
We are rooted in sport and can showcase an entire brand of portfolio, including apparel, footwear and hard lines across our over 800 stores and online.
Our brand partners continue to make significant investments in our business every year and provide us with increasing allocations of exclusive and differentiated products.
These top-of-the-line products are highly coveted and rarely promoted, driving significant sales and margin momentum.
Our strategic partnerships with key brands have never been stronger, and we're making big bets with important brand partners.
To that end, we recently announced a groundbreaking new partnership with Nike that we see as truly transformative for the sports industry.
Through this collaboration, DICK'S and Nike will create unmatched value for our athletes through exclusive products, experiences, content and other specialized offers.
Together, we'll embrace our collective strengths and capabilities to expand our reach, connect with even more athletes and most importantly serve them better.
Our companies have a long and successful history of working together, and this demonstrates a deepening of the DICK's and Nike relationship.
This partnership is aimed at driving growth for both companies, while serving our customers in a personalized way.
At DICK's, part of our strategy is to lead with mobile, and we're excited to launch this partnership through a connected marketplace exclusively in our DICK's mobile app.
Looking ahead, we will explore additional opportunities to work with Nike and our other strategic partners across our respective physical and digital properties to further enhance convenience, experiences and content for our athletes.
Now, I'd like to provide a few updates on our newest concept.
First, we remain very pleased with our first 2 DICK's House of Sport stores in Rochester and Knoxville.
House of Sport is built around experience, service, community and product, setting an unparalleled standard for sports retail and athlete engagement.
Moving forward, we are excited to continue to refine and grow House of Sport, while pulling key learnings into the rest of the DICK's chain.
We're also excited by the early results of our first two Golf Galaxy performance centers located outside of Boston and Minneapolis, St Paul.
Golf Galaxy Performance Center has been completely redesigned and equipped with TrackMan and BioMech golf technologies.
We've also invested in talent to ensure our teammates become trusted advisors to golf enthusiast of all levels.
In addition to innovating within our core business, we also launched Public Lands, a new omnichannel specialty concept to better serve outdoor athletes.
Our first Public Lands store recently opened here in Pittsburgh, and our second store opened in Columbus just a few weeks ago.
We also launched publiclands.com, a complete eCommerce experience for the outdoor enthusiasts.
While it's still early, Public Lands is off to a strong start and we are very enthusiastic about this growth opportunity and its goal to get more people outside, exploring and protecting Americas Public Lands.
Before concluding, I want to spend a moment on the supply chain.
Amidst the very dynamic environment, our team has done an excellent job working with our vendor partners and with our vertical brand manufacturers to ensure a robust flow of product to meet strong demand.
We ordered aggressively to get ahead of this disruption and our quarter ending inventory levels increased 7.3% compared to the end of the same period last year.
While there will continue to be inventory challenges across the marketplace, our fourth quarter is off to a strong start and we feel that we are well positioned within our industry this holiday season.
In closing, we have exciting growth opportunities ahead of us.
And as Ed said, we are very confident in the longer-term prospects of our business.
As we continue to execute against our strategic priorities and reimagine the athlete experience, we believe the investments we've made to transform our business will strengthen our leadership position within the marketplace.
Our teammates are at the center of this transformation.
After joining the company in 2017 as SVP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer, Navdeep was appointed to the CFO position last month.
Navdeep's impact on our business has been phenomenal.
Over the last four years, he has led most of the finance functions in the organization and he has become a trusted partner to our entire executive team.
He has also driven companywide productivity efforts, served on our long-term Strategic Committee and he played a really critical role in securing financing at the outset of COVID.
Prior to DICK's, Navdeep spent 11 years at Advance Auto Parts in various leadership roles, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Finance.
Earlier in his career, Navdeep held a variety of management roles at Sprint Nextel and he served as a lieutenant in the Indian Navy.
Navdeep's keen financial acumen and strategic vision will be instrumental to the continued growth and success of DICK's.
And with that, Navdeep, it is my pleasure to hand it over to you.
With three quarters of the year now behind us, our consistent, strong results have demonstrated our ability to serve our athletes in a very differentiated way, while driving toward another record sales and earnings here in 2021.
Let's begin with a brief review of our third quarter results.
Like Lauren said, we are excited to report a consolidated sales increase of 13.9% to approximately $2.75 billion.
Consolidated same-store sales increased 12.2% on top of a 23.2% increase in the same period last year, and a 6% increase in Q3 of 2019.
Our strong comps were driven by growth across each of our three primary categories of hardlines, apparel and footwear, as well as an 8.5% increase in transaction and a 3.7% increase in average ticket.
When compared to 2019, consolidated sales increased 40%.
Our brick-and-mortar stores comped up approximately 15% versus 2020, and delivered a 31% sales increase when compared to 2019, with roughly the same square footage.
Our eCommerce sales increased 1% versus last year on top of a 95% online sales increase in the third quarter of 2020.
Compared to Q3 of 2019, our eCommerce sales increased 97%.
As a percent of total net sales, our online business has grown from 13% in 2019% to 19% in the current quarter.
eCommerce penetration was 21% last year.
Moving to gross profit.
Gross profit in the third quarter was $1.06 billion, or 38.45% of net sales, and improved 354 basis points compared to last year.
This improvement was driven by merchandise margin rate expansion of 301 basis points and leverage on fixed occupancy costs of 111 basis points from sales increase.
The increase in merchandise margin was primarily driven by fewer promotions due to our increasingly differentiated assortment and disciplined promotional strategy, as certain categories in the marketplace continue to be supply constrained.
We also saw a favorable sales mix.
In addition, we were able to pass through selective price increases to help cover merchandise cost increases from higher supply chain and input costs.
As expected, these improvements were partially offset by higher freight costs resulting from global supply chain disruptions and our prioritization of inventory availability over costs.
Compared to 2019, gross profit as a percent of net sales improved 886 basis points, driven by merchandise margin rate expansion of 578 basis points due to fewer promotions, as well as leverage on fixed occupancy costs of 370 basis points, which again was partially offset by higher freight costs.
SG&A expenses were $631.9 million, or 23% of net sales, however, leveraged 151 basis points compared to last year due primarily to the increase in sales.
SG&A dollars increased $40.8 million, due primarily to current year cost increases to support the growth in sales.
In the prior year quarter, SG&A included $43 million of COVID-related costs.
However, in the current year, we transitioned our hourly teammates to compensation programs with a longer-term focus, including increasing and accelerating annual merit increases and higher wage minimums, partially offsetting last year's COVID-related costs.
Compared to 2019 and on a non-GAAP basis, SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales leveraged 325 basis points due primarily to the increase in sales.
SG&A dollars increased $116.8 million due to increase in store payroll and operating expenses to support the increase in sales, as well as hourly wage rate investments.
Driven by our strong sales and gross margin rate expansion, non-GAAP EBT was $415.6 million, or 15.12% of net sales, and increased $171.8 million, or 501 basis points from the same period last year.
Compared to 2019, non-GAAP EBT increased $355.6 million, or approximately 1,200 basis points as a percentage of net sales.
In total, we delivered a non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $3.19.
This compares to a non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $2.01 last year, a 59% year-over-year increase, and a non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.52 in 2019, a 513% increase.
On a GAAP basis, our earnings per diluted share were $2.78.
This included $7.7 million in non-cash interest expense, as well as 12.8 million additional shares that we have designed to be offset by our bond hedge at settlement, but are required in the GAAP diluted share calculation.
Both of these are related to our convertible notes we issued in Q1 of 2020.
Now looking to our balance sheet.
We are in a strong financial position, ending Q3 with approximately $1.37 billion of cash and cash equivalents, and no borrowings on our $1.855 billion revolving credit facility.
Our quarter-end inventory levels increased 7.3% compared to end of Q3 last year.
Looking ahead, we continue to aggressively chase product to meet demand and prioritize inventory availability over costs.
As part of this, we expect elevated freight expenses to continue at least in the fourth quarter and have included the impact of this within our outlook.
To reiterate Lauren's comment, while there will continue to be supply chain challenges across the marketplace, we feel that we are very well positioned within our industry this holiday season.
Turning to our third quarter capital allocation.
During the quarter, net capital expenditures were $54.1 million.
We paid $503 million in dividends, which included a special dividend of $5.50 per share that we announced last quarter.
We also repurchased 2.17 million shares of our stock for approximately $273 million at an average price of $125.80.
We have approximately $605 million remaining under our share repurchase program.
Year-to-date, we have returned nearly $1 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in the profitable growth of our business, while maintaining an appropriate level of cash on the balance sheet.
Returning capital to shareholders will also continue to be an important component of our capital allocation strategy.
Now, let me move on to our fiscal 2021 outlook for sales and earnings.
While still early, Q4 is off to a strong start.
Taking this into account, along with our significant Q3 results, an expectation of a continued strong consumer demand and our confidence in our ability to navigate the global supply chain challenges, we are raising our consolidated same-store sales guidance and now expect the full-year comp sales to increase by 20% to 25% compared to our prior expectation of up 18% to 20%.
This is on top of 9.9% increase in consolidated same-store sales last year and a 3.7% increase in 2019.
At the midpoint, our updated comp sales guidance represents a 39% sales increase versus 2019 compared to our prior expectation of up 33%.
On a non-GAAP EBT basis, we expect the full-year results to be in the range of $1.89 billion to $1.92 billion compared to our prior outlook of $1.61 billion to $1.67 billion, which at midpoint and on a non-GAAP basis is up 333% versus 2019 and up 160% versus 2020.
At the midpoint, non-GAAP EBT margin is expected to be approximately 15.7%.
Within this, gross margin is expected to increase versus both 2019 and 2020, driven by leverage on fixed expenses and higher merchandise margins.
This assumes higher freight costs and fewer promotions compared to both 2019 and 2020 for the fourth quarter.
SG&A expenses is expected to leverage versus both 2019 and 2020, due to the significant projected increase in full-year sales.
In total, we are raising our full-year non-GAAP earnings per diluted share outlook to a range of $14.60 to $14.80, compared to our prior outlook of $12.45 to $12.95.
At the midpoint and on a non-GAAP basis, our updated earnings per share guidance is up 298% versus 2019 and up 140% versus 2020.
In closing, the work that we have done over the past several years to rearchitect our strategy, operations and financial, sets us up well to deliver improved value to our shareholders over the long term.

user
compname reports q3 sales up 14% to $2.75 bln.
compname reports record third quarter sales and earnings; delivers 12.2% increase in same store sales and raises full year guidance.
q3 same store sales rose 12.2 percent.
sees fy non-gaap earnings per share $14.60 to $14.80.
q3 non-gaap earnings per share $3.19.
q3 sales rose 13.9 percent to $2.75 billion.
total inventory increased 7.3% at end of q3 of 2021 compared to end of q3 of 2020.
q3 2021 earnings per diluted share of $2.78.

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