Foot Locker comparable sales grow for the first time in six quarters

Foot Locker on Wednesday said comparable sales grew for the first time in six quarters as its efforts to refresh its stores and improve the customer experience continue to bear fruit. 

The beleaguered sneaker company's same-store sales grew 2.6% during its fiscal second quarter, far better than the 0.7% uptick that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. Its gross margin also expanded for the first time in more than two years. 

Despite the positive trends, the company's shares dropped about 8% in premarket trading.

"The Lace Up Plan is working," CEO Mary Dillon said in a press release, referencing the company's turnaround strategy. "Our top line trends strengthened as we moved through the quarter, including a solid start to Back-to-School. We were also particularly pleased to deliver stabilization in our Champs Sports banner." 

Here's how Foot Locker did compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

In the three-month period that ended Aug. 3, Foot Locker had a loss of $12 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with a loss of $5 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Foot Locker posted a loss of 5 cents per share. 

Sales rose to $1.90 billion, up about 2% from $1.86 billion a year earlier. 

For the current fiscal year, Foot Locker largely maintained its guidance and continues to expect sales to be in a range of a 1% decline to 1% growth from the prior year – better than the 0.4% decline that analysts had expected, according to LSEG. 

Foot Locker also stood by its adjusted earnings per share guidance. It expects earnings to be between $1.50 and $1.70 – much of that range ahead of the $1.54 that analysts had expected, according to LSEG. 

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