Did DICK'S miss on sales?

Not on the reported quarter. Net sales were $5,587 million against $3,647 million a year earlier, up 53.2%, and the DICK'S Business delivered 4.9% comparable sales growth. The problem was the Foot Locker Business, whose proforma comparable sales declined 3.6%, and the margin required to hold share in a promotional footwear market.

How big was the guidance cut?

At the midpoints of the ranges: full-year net sales from $22.25 billion to $22.05 billion, a cut of 0.9%; GAAP operating income from $1.75 billion to $1.50 billion, a cut of 14.3%; and GAAP earnings per diluted share from $13.77 to $11.44, a cut of 16.9%. The effective tax rate assumption also rose from about 27% to about 29%.

How much of the EPS decline came from the Foot Locker shares?

About a third. Quarterly EPS fell $1.21, from $4.71 to $3.50. Holding the diluted share count at the prior year's 81 million, the $315 million of net income would have produced $3.89 a share, so the extra 9 million shares account for $0.39 of the fall and lower profit for $0.82.

Was the quarter itself a miss or a beat?

This article does not compare the result to analyst consensus, which is not a filing and which we do not verify. What the filings show is that reported EPS fell 26% year on year, GAAP operating margin fell from 12.4% to 7.9%, and the company revised its own full-year outlook downward on the same day.

DICK'S cut sales guidance 0.9%. It cut EPS guidance 17%.

DICK'S revised outlook takes $0.2bn off sales and $2.33 off EPS. The filings show how a small sales revision becomes a much larger earnings cut.

Published Aug 31, 2026Updated Oct 7, 2026Data as of Aug 28, 2026Sources 2By Yu Han

DKS

In short

DICK'S reduced full-year sales guidance by 0.9% and EPS guidance by 16.9% at the midpoints, while retaining the outlook for its own stores.

Means: The revised outlook cuts full-year sales by 0.9% at the midpoint and EPS by 16.9%. A one-percent demand problem became a seventeen-percent earnings problem through margin.
Market: This article examines company disclosures and their financial implications. It does not publish market prices or measure the trading reaction.
Watch: Whether Foot Locker proforma comps stay in the guided −2.0% to 0.0% range. The DICK'S Business outlook of 2.5% to 4.0% growth was left untouched.

DICK’S own stores grew comparable sales 4.9% in the quarter, and their full-year outlook was unchanged. The revised consolidated forecast shows how the Foot Locker business and margin pressure altered earnings expectations. The company published the same forecast twice, three months apart.

The same outlook, in May and in August

Full-year 2026 outlook, as given in each quarter's release

27 May 25 Aug change Net sales $22.1–22.4bn $21.9–22.2bn -0.9% Operating income $1.69–1.81bn $1.45–1.55bn -14.3% EPS (GAAP) $13.27–14.27 $10.94–11.94 -16.9% EPS (non-GAAP) $13.50–14.50 $11.00–12.00 -17.9% Tax rate ~27% ~29% +200 bps

Midpoints of the disclosed ranges, computed here. The May figures are from the 27 May 2026 release and the August figures from the 25 August 2026 release, both linked in the sources. Share count and tax rate are the assumptions each release states.

The sales line moved by nine-tenths of one percent. The earnings line moved by seventeen. That ratio is the entire event, and it is what a promotional market does to a retailer: the units still sell, and the margin on them does not survive.

The release says so in plain terms — as the quarter progressed, “conditions across portions of the athletic footwear and apparel marketplace became increasingly promotional, and we took action to remain competitively priced.” Holding price is a decision to trade margin for share. The outlook is where that decision gets a number.

What the quarter actually reported

DICK'S second quarter against the same quarter a year earlier. Sales more than half again as large, profit smaller — the shape of a business that has just absorbed an acquisition into a market that turned against it.Source: consolidated operating results table, Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 25 August 2026

Net sales rose 53.2%, to $5,587 million from $3,647 million. That number is not growth in any useful sense — the Foot Locker Business is in this year’s figure and not in last year’s. GAAP operating margin went the other way, from 12.4% to 7.9%, a fall of 451 basis points.

Net income was $315 million against $381 million, down 17.3%. Earnings per diluted share were $3.50 against $4.71, down 25.7%.

Splitting the $1.21

Those last two lines fell by different amounts, and the difference is the acquisition currency. DICK’S issued 9.6 million shares for Foot Locker; the weighted average diluted count went from 81 million to 90 million.

Where the $1.21 of lost EPS went

Reported EPS, prior year $4.71 Same profit ($315m) on last year’s 81m shares $3.89 ← earnings effect: −$0.82 Reported EPS, this year $3.50 ← dilution effect: −$0.39

The counterfactual holds the diluted share count at the prior year's 81 million and applies this year's actual net income of $315 million. It is arithmetic on two reported figures, not an estimate of what the company would have earned without the acquisition — Foot Locker's results are inside the $315 million.

About a third of the decline — $0.39 of $1.21 — is the shares. The other two-thirds is less profit. Both are real, but they are different problems: one is permanent and known in advance, the other is the thing the outlook just moved.

Where it went wrong, in the company’s own segmentation

The release separates the two businesses, and they point opposite ways.

	Second quarter	Full-year outlook
DICK’S Business	comps +4.9%	maintained at +2.5% to +4.0%
Foot Locker Business	proforma comps −3.6%	lowered to −2.0% to 0.0%

The company attributes the gap to Foot Locker’s “greater exposure to legacy footwear silhouettes and greater dependence on footwear launch and retro product,” and notes that in the quarter there were fewer launches and that those launches “performed below both industry and our expectations.”

That is a specific, checkable claim about a specific category, and it is the reason the operating income outlook fell for both businesses while only one of the comp outlooks did.

What this article does not settle

No consensus comparison. Analyst estimates are not filings and we do not verify them, so this article does not say whether the quarter beat or missed. Every comparison here is against the company’s own prior disclosure.
Proforma comps are not GAAP. The −3.6% for Foot Locker is a company-defined measure for a business it did not own for the whole comparable period. The release labels it as such.
The 53.2% sales increase is not growth. It is mostly the acquisition entering the numerator. Anyone annualising it will be wrong.
Midpoints are our arithmetic. The company gives ranges. Comparing midpoints is the cleanest way to size a revision, but a range that widens or narrows carries information a midpoint drops.
The exhibit is furnished, not filed. Earnings releases attached to an Item 2.02 8-K carry a lower liability standard than the financial statements in a 10-Q. The quarterly report with the audited-basis detail follows separately.

Check it yourself

The two releases are linked above and the comparison takes one screen each: both print a table headed Full Year 2026 Outlook with the same four lines. The quarterly figures are in the Second Quarter Consolidated Operating Results table of the August release.

For the same question asked of companies whose guidance went the other way, see why FICO fell 17% on the day it raised guidance and why Sandisk fell after earning $6.9bn in a quarter. When the revision lands on the dividend rather than the forecast, the arithmetic looks like Campbell’s cutting its payout 36%. When a retailer’s problem is the goods rather than the price, it shows up first in inventory.

The calculations and their numeric inputs are displayed in the “Calculations and inputs” section below.

If a figure here does not match a filing, tell us and it will be corrected on the article and on the corrections log, with the date.

Calculations and inputs

Match the inputs to the source tables cited in the article, then apply the expressions below. Ratios are shown as decimals; multiply by 100 for a percentage. Results are rounded.

Quarterly net sales growth · DKS: 5587 / 3647 - 1 ≈ 0.53194 · ratio (×100 = %)
Quarterly net income change · DKS: 315 / 381 - 1 ≈ -0.17323 · ratio (×100 = %)
Diluted share count change · DKS: 90 / 81 - 1 ≈ 0.11111 · ratio (×100 = %)
Reported EPS change · DKS: 3.50 / 4.71 - 1 ≈ -0.2569 · ratio (×100 = %)
EPS on the prior-year share count, $ · DKS: 315 / 81 ≈ 3.88889 · $
Share of the EPS fall attributable to dilution · DKS: (315 / 81 - 3.50) / 1.21 ≈ 0.32139 · ratio (×100 = %)
Full-year sales guidance change at the midpoint · DKS: ((21.9 + 22.2) / 2) / ((22.1 + 22.4) / 2) - 1 ≈ -0.00899 · ratio (×100 = %)
Full-year GAAP operating income guidance change at the midpoint · DKS: ((1.45 + 1.55) / 2) / ((1.69 + 1.81) / 2) - 1 ≈ -0.14286 · ratio (×100 = %)
Full-year GAAP EPS guidance change at the midpoint · DKS: ((10.94 + 11.94) / 2) / ((13.27 + 14.27) / 2) - 1 ≈ -0.16921 · ratio (×100 = %)
Full-year non-GAAP EPS guidance change at the midpoint · DKS: ((11.00 + 12.00) / 2) / ((13.50 + 14.50) / 2) - 1 ≈ -0.17857 · ratio (×100 = %)

Questions this answers

Did DICK'S miss on sales?: Not on the reported quarter. Net sales were $5,587 million against $3,647 million a year earlier, up 53.2%, and the DICK'S Business delivered 4.9% comparable sales growth. The problem was the Foot Locker Business, whose proforma comparable sales declined 3.6%, and the margin required to hold share in a promotional footwear market.
How big was the guidance cut?: At the midpoints of the ranges: full-year net sales from $22.25 billion to $22.05 billion, a cut of 0.9%; GAAP operating income from $1.75 billion to $1.50 billion, a cut of 14.3%; and GAAP earnings per diluted share from $13.77 to $11.44, a cut of 16.9%. The effective tax rate assumption also rose from about 27% to about 29%.
How much of the EPS decline came from the Foot Locker shares?: About a third. Quarterly EPS fell $1.21, from $4.71 to $3.50. Holding the diluted share count at the prior year's 81 million, the $315 million of net income would have produced $3.89 a share, so the extra 9 million shares account for $0.39 of the fall and lower profit for $0.82.
Was the quarter itself a miss or a beat?: This article does not compare the result to analyst consensus, which is not a filing and which we do not verify. What the filings show is that reported EPS fell 26% year on year, GAAP operating margin fell from 12.4% to 7.9%, and the company revised its own full-year outlook downward on the same day.

Corrections

Oct 7, 2026
Market prices and calculations based on them were removed after a review of publication rights. Filing-based financial analysis remains.

Verify this yourself

2 sources

The links below identify the filings, structured data, and other sources used in this article. Market data is labeled separately. Calculated figures use the inputs and expressions explained in the article; a source link alone does not independently verify every calculation.

Data as of Aug 28, 2026 · figures may be restated by the issuer after this date

Found a number that doesn't match the filing?Confirmed corrections are published on the corrections log, with the date and what changed.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Sources and data dates are listed below; reported figures may be restated later. Verify independently before making any investment decision.