Despite exceeding earnings estimates, Dick's Sporting Goods provides cautious guidance for the 2024 election.

• Wall Street's expectations were exceeded on both the top and bottom lines by Dick's Sporting Goods.
• The full-year outlook of the sporting goods store was raised, but the forecast seemed less optimistic than anticipated.
• Last year, Dick's profits were under pressure due to aggressive markdowns and theft, but now those issues seem to be under control.

Wall Street's earnings estimates were surpassed by the retailer on Wednesday in its fiscal second quarter, but the new full-year guidance did not meet expectations.

The sporting goods store follows other retailers in providing muted or cautious guidance for the second half of the fiscal year, as companies prepare for the presidential election in November and some anticipate a slowdown in consumer spending.

Based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, how Dick's performed compared with Wall Street's expectations.

• Earnings per share: $4.37 vs. $3.83 expected
• Revenue: $3.47 billion vs. $3.44 billion expected

In the three-month period ending August 3, the company's net income was $362 million, or $4.37 per share, which is higher than the $244 million, or $2.82 per share, recorded in the same period a year ago.

Sales increased by 8% to $3.47 billion from $3.22 billion the previous year, while comparable sales grew by 4.5%, surpassing the analysts' forecast of 3.6%.

Dick's stores are experiencing an increase in comparable sales due to both an increase in the number of visitors and an increase in spending per visitor.

Dick's has revised its earnings per share guidance for fiscal 2024, now expecting it to be between $13.55 and $13.90, up from the previous range of $13.35 to $13.75 per share. Despite its fiscal second-quarter earnings coming in 54 cents higher than expected, Dick's only raised its earnings guidance by about 18 cents at the midpoint. At the low end, Dick's earnings guidance falls a bit short of the $13.79 that analysts had expected, according to LSEG.

Despite falling short of analysts' expectations, Dick's maintained its sales guidance of $13.1 billion to $13.2 billion. The company also raised its projections for comparable sales growth, now expecting it to grow between 2.5% and 3.5%, up from previous guidance of 2% to 3%. The high end of the guidance is ahead of the 3% growth that analysts had expected.

The company announced in a securities filing that it suffered a cyberattack and some confidential information was compromised. In response, Dick's activated its cybersecurity response plan and enlisted external experts to investigate and contain the threat.

Dick's stated in its filing that it was unaware of the breach and its impact on business operations, and based on the information available, it did not consider the incident significant.

Last year, Dick surprised its investors with the revelation that theft and discounts for slow-moving inventory would affect its full-year profit projections, causing its stock to drop by 24%. Although profits had previously decreased by 23%, Wednesday's earnings report suggests that these challenges are now in the past for the company.

Some retailers, including and , reported that shrinkage, or inventory loss, had decreased in recent weeks due to factors such as theft and damage. Retailers cited investments in operations, technology, and a reduction in self-checkout machines as the top issues they faced in 2023. However, it seems that shrinkage is no longer a major concern for some retailers after making these changes.

Retailers have been preparing for the upcoming election in November and the potential impact it could have on consumer spending. Additionally, they are uncertain about the Federal Reserve's expected rate cut and how it may affect discretionary spending beyond the election.

Dick's will discuss its results with analysts and provide more insights on its guidance at 8 a.m. ET.