After Dick's Disappoints, Is Hibbett (HIBB) Set to Beat Earnings?

Shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods DKS plummeted on Tuesday morning after the company reported weaker-than-expected holiday quarter sales. But does this slow Q4 from Dick’s mean a similar downturn is in store for fellow sports retailer Hibbett Sports HIBB? Let’s take a closer look.

Dick’s sales at existing stores sunk 2% in the fourth quarter. The company’s total Q4 revenues did jump from the year prior to $2.66 billion, but this fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.73 billion.

Investors should be happy to note that the struggling sports retailer posted adjusted earnings of $1.22 per share, which topped our estimate by $0.02. However, this bottom line result clearly didn’t prove cause for investor celebration.

With that said, let’s dive into Hibbett’s current estimates to help investors understand what might be in store for the sports retailer later this week.

Hibbett, which just officially launched its e-commerce website last summer, is expected to see its sales climb by 8.01% to hit $266.7 million. The company is also projected to see its quarterly earnings reach $0.43 per share. Still, investors need to consider a few more metrics to understand if the company is poised to top this estimate.

Luckily, Zacks Premium customers can utilize the Earnings ESP Screener in order to search for stocks that are expected to beat. Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) looks to find earnings surprises by focusing on the most recent analyst estimates.

This is done because, generally speaking, when an analyst posts an estimate right before an earnings release, it means that they have fresh information which could potentially be more accurate than what analysts thought about a company two or three months ago.

A positive Earnings ESP paired with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better ranking helps us feel confident about the potential for an earnings beat. In fact, our 10-year backtest has revealed that this methodology has accurately produced a positive surprise 70% of the time.

Hibbettcurrently has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%, which means earnings estimates have been flat directly ahead of HIBB’s Q4 results. This means our model does not conclusively show that a beat is likely.

Investors should also note that Hibbett posted an average earnings surprise of 25.6% over the last four quarters.

Hibbettis set to report its Q4 and fiscal 2017 earnings results on Friday, March 16.

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