(RTTNews) - Thursday morning, sporting goods retailer Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation
(BGFV) said sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 declined hurt by difficult business conditions in addition to a significant deterioration in the performance of the roller shore product category, which accounted for about 45% of the same store sales decline. Same store sales for the fourth quarter declined 4.7%.
The company said for the fourth quarter ended December 30, 2007 net sales declined to $232.1 million from $234.5 million in the corresponding period last year. For fourth quarter, Big 5 now expects earnings per share to be in the range of $0.25 to $0.28. Analysts, surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial expect the company to earn $0.42 per share on sales of $242.54 million for the quarter.
Earlier, the company said it expected to earn between $0.36 and $0.46 per share for the fourth quarter. Big 5 said previously issued guidance for the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter should not be relied upon.
For all of 2007, net sales grew by 2.5% to $898.3 million from $876.8 million last year. Same store sales declined 1.0% for the full year 2007. For the fiscal 2007 full year, the company now expects earnings per share to be in $1.22 to $1.25 range.
Steven G. Miller, the Company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said, ' We continue to examine and augment areas of our business that we can influence, including enhancing our merchandise offering and promotional plan, as well as controlling expenses. We remain confident in the effectiveness of our overall business model that produced 45 consecutive quarters of positive same store sales growth through the first quarter of 2007, and we look forward to stronger results as the consumer spending environment improves.'
The company intends to announce fourth quarter results and guidance for fiscal 2008, by the first week of March.
BGFV closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $12.73. The stock has traded between $12.34 and $27.38 during the past year.
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