Retail

Finish Line Earnings Stumble Over Supply Chain Disruption

Chris Lange

Published: January 7, 2016 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:20 pm

Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Thursday. The company had a net loss of $0.49 per share on $382.1 million in revenue. That compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of a net loss of $0.04 per share on $407.74 million in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the retailer posted a net loss of $0.02 per share and revenue of $395.83 million.

During this past quarter, there was a disruption in the supply chain that the company estimates had a total impact of a loss of $0.42 per share on the bottom line. This includes $32 million in lost sales combined with margin pressures and additional SG&A expenses.

The company repurchased 500,000 shares of common stock in the third quarter, totaling $9.7 million. Some 4.3 million shares still remain in the authorized repurchase program.

Separately, the company said Sam Sato, the president of Finish Line, will succeed Glenn Lyon as the CEO effective at the end of February. Lyon will continue his duties as chairman.

For the fourth quarter, the company expects comparable store sales to be up in the low to mid single-digit range and earnings per share (EPS) in the range of $0.78 and $0.83.

Lyon commented on earnings:

Our third quarter performance was severely impacted by a disruption in our supply chain following the implementation of our new warehouse and order management system. Specifically, in October, we began experiencing issues flowing fresh inventory into our stores as well as fulfilling online orders as the new system was unable to process freight at volumes necessary to support our sales plans. We worked quickly to address the disruption in our system and improve our operating capabilities, increasing technical and operational resources including third party experts. We have achieved a pickup in sales trends as the quantity and quality of our inventory improved in recent weeks. Fourth quarter-to-date comps for Finish Line, which include the fiscal month of December ended January 2, 2016, were up 6.2%. We anticipate that we’ll return to a stable operating environment during the first quarter and we will start leveraging the multiple benefits from our supply chain system enhancements.

On the books, the company had $55.3 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter.

Shares of Finish Line closed Wednesday down 1.9% at $18.50, with a consensus analyst price target of $23.82 and a 52-week trading range of $15.37 to $29.05. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down 13.5% at $16.00 in early trading indications Thursday.