Finish Line Comparable Store Sales Rise

Finish Line Inc. on Friday said its comparable-store sales increased in the latest quarter and said it would change the role of its former chief executive more quickly than expected.

Shares of Finish Line jumped 5% to $25.20 in premarket trading as results came in ahead of analysts' expectations.

The athletic retailer also said executive chairman and former CEO Glenn Lyon would become nonexecutive chairman effective immediately, a faster timetable than initially laid out. At the end of February, Mr. Lyon stepped down as CEO after a bungled warehouse-management system rollout. The company had originally said Mr. Lyon would remain executive chairman through the end of the year.

Sales at Finish Line stores open at least a year increased 5.1%.

"Our comparable store sales accelerated during the second quarter," CEO Sam Sato said. "With our enhanced supply chain now operating efficiently, our focus shifts to streamlining our organizational structure to optimize productivity."

Indianapolis-based Finish Line, which has stores inside struggling Macy's Inc. stores, has moved to shut locations while ramping up its e-commerce capabilities. Its number of stand-alone stores fell 5.6% to 585 during the period as its store-within-a-store count fell 0.8% to 391 from the prior year.

In all for the August quarter, the company reported a profit of $22.1 million, or 53 cents a share, down from $25.9 million, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier.

As Finish Line repurchased 1 million shares during the quarter, a 9% lower share count boosted per-share earnings.

Revenue grew 5.4% to $453.5 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 53 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $494.8 million in revenue.

The company reaffirmed its earnings and comparable store sales outlook.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 23, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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