DICK'S Sporting Goods Stock Crashes 27% as Foot Locker Woes Force Steep Full-Year Guidance Cut

Shares of DICK'S Sporting Goods plunged as much as 27.58%, or $49.46, to $129.87 as of 11:41 a.m. EDT Tuesday, marking one of the sporting goods retailer's worst trading sessions in years after the company missed second-quarter earnings estimates and slashed its full-year profit outlook, driven primarily by deepening weakness at its recently acquired Foot Locker business.

DICK'S reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $3.53, missing the analyst consensus of $3.78 by 25 cents, according to Investing.com. Revenue for the quarter reached $5.59 billion, falling short of the $5.65 billion analysts had projected, even as sales climbed 53.2% year over year, a gain driven primarily by the inclusion of the recently acquired Foot Locker business. On a GAAP basis, actual earnings came in slightly lower still, at $3.50 per share, down 26% from the same period a year earlier, according to The Motley Fool.

The results told two starkly different stories depending on which part of the business investors examined. According to BigGo Finance, the core DICK'S banner continued performing strongly, with comparable sales growth of 4.9%, building on a 5% gain in the same quarter last year, a result management said represented roughly 200 basis points of market share gains relative to the broader industry. The newly acquired Foot Locker business, by contrast, posted a proforma comparable sales decline of 3.6%, a result that badly missed leadership's own expectations and dragged down the company's overall results.

In response to that Foot Locker weakness, DICK'S slashed its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $11.00 to $12.00 per share, down sharply from its previous forecast of $13.50 to $14.50, representing an 18% cut at the midpoint, according to BigGo Finance. The company also lowered its annual sales outlook to a range of $21.9 billion to $22.2 billion, down from a prior forecast of $22.1 billion to $22.4 billion, according to Reuters coverage cited by the Lufkin Daily News. Perhaps most strikingly, DICK'S now expects its Foot Locker segment to post an operating loss of $80 million to $40 million for the year, a dramatic reversal from its earlier forecast of $110 million to $150 million in profit from that same business, according to BigGo Finance.

Executive Chairman Ed Stack offered a direct explanation for what drove the sudden deterioration, pointing to an increasingly promotional environment across the athletic footwear and apparel industry. "What changed is a number of brands got very promotional on their sites, and those promotions spilled into the broader marketplace," Stack told analysts, according to BigGo Finance. Stack was similarly candid regarding the specific performance shortfall within Foot Locker's product launches during the quarter. "Not only were there fewer launches in the second quarter, but those launches performed below both industry and our expectations," Stack said, according to the Lufkin Daily News, adding that the company is now taking a more cautious view of the remainder of the year.

That cautious tone marked a notable reversal from the company's messaging just months earlier. According to the Lufkin Daily News, DICK'S had struck an upbeat tone as recently as May, when it raised its annual guidance target and pointed to encouraging early "proof points" suggesting Foot Locker's comparable sales could return to growth. Reuters reported that consumers have grown more selective about discretionary purchases, showing greater interest in fresher launches within categories such as wellness and health compared with legacy brand names, as household budgets face pressure from elevated gas and food costs.

Telsey Advisory Group analyst Cristina Fernandez characterized the scale of the guidance cut as a genuine surprise given the broader industry backdrop. "While several athletic brands had pointed softness in the US wholesale market during 2Q26, Dick's large cut to its 2026 guidance came as a surprise and showed the sensitivity of the Foot Locker business to trends in the footwear market," Fernandez wrote in a note following the results, according to Investing.com. She added that while the core DICK'S business remains more resilient and diversified, it too is beginning to show signs of pressure. "While the Dick's business is more resilient and diversified, it also appears the company is seeing some pressure and needing to drive promotions, affecting its profitability in 2H26," Fernandez wrote.

Company executives suggested the current weakness may prove temporary rather than reflecting a deeper structural shift in consumer preferences, according to BigGo Finance, citing strong performance from newer product launches including Nike Mind, Adidas women's lines, UGG and Birkenstock. Management specifically flagged the EMEA region as facing more significant challenges than the U.S. market, characterized by a cautious consumer base and heavy promotional activity. DICK'S maintained its core comparable sales guidance of 2.5% to 4% growth for that segment specifically, though the company no longer expects the same degree of margin expansion it had previously anticipated, with the third quarter now expected to represent the most difficult stretch of the year.

As part of its response to the challenging footwear market conditions, DICK'S disclosed plans to close as many as 110 Foot Locker stores during fiscal 2026, according to TS2.Tech. The company also confirmed it received $59 million in tariff refunds under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a portion of which it has used to help fund increased promotional activity, according to the Lufkin Daily News.

Tuesday's decline compounds an already difficult year for DICK'S shares. According to Blockonomi, the stock had already fallen 9.4% year-to-date prior to Tuesday's session, lagging the broader S&P 500's performance in 2026. TS2.Tech noted that heading into Tuesday's release, Wall Street sentiment toward the stock remained largely favorable, with 13 of 17 covering analysts rating the shares a buy, four rating them a hold, and none recommending a sell, though those ratings and price targets all predate the earnings release and subsequent guidance cut, meaning they are likely to be revised in the coming days as analysts digest the scale of the shortfall.

The stock's decline also weighed on related names within the athletic retail sector Tuesday, with Nike and Academy Sports and Outdoors shares both trading lower in sympathy, according to Seeking Alpha, reflecting broader investor concern that the promotional pressures DICK'S described could be affecting the wider athletic footwear and apparel industry rather than representing an isolated, company-specific issue tied narrowly to the Foot Locker integration.