Foot Locker (FL, Financial), the $9.8 billion shoe retailer, delivered its third-quarter and year-to-date results on Nov. 18. The shoe company reported sales growth of 4.6% to $5.65 billion.
Foot Locker also delivered good profit growth of 24% to $475 million year to date despite a 2.4% increase in business-related expenses.
"Our outstanding track record of meaningful sales and profit growth over several years is a strong testament to Foot Locker Inc.’s solid position at the center of sneaker culture.
"Our associates work hard every day to make our company the sneaker lover’s preferred destination for the best footwear and apparel assortments across our array of outstanding athletic vendors. That work translated once again into an exceptional quarterly sales and profit performance."”€– Richard Johnson, chairman and CEO
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Valuations
The company is valued at a trailing 12-month price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.9 times (industry median: 17), price-book (P/B) ratio of 3.7 times (industry median: 1.69) and price-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.3 times (industry median: 0.99; 1). In addition, Foot Locker had a trailing dividend yield of 1.49% and a 26% payout ratio along with a 3.8% buyback ratio.
(10-K)
Performance
Foot Locker had a total return of 26.7% in the past five years while the Standard & Poor's 500 index returned 14.45% (2). Year to date, the company returned 14.85% versus 9.79%.
(10-K)
Foot Locker
Foot Locker is a 27-year-old leading global retailer of athletically inspired shoes and apparel (5). The company had 3,394 stores in 23 countries including those found in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, there are 56 franchised Foot Locker stores operating in the Middle East and South Korea as well as 15 franchised Runners Point stores in Germany.
(Not updated quantitative Foot Locker Store Profile, 10-K)
(10-K)
Foot Locker has two segments: Athletic Stores and Direct-to-Customers.
Athletic Stores
The Athletic Stores segment carries the company’s Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, SIX:02, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, Runners Point and Sidestep stores. As observed, most Foot Locker stores represent the athletic store segment.
Foot Locker’s athletic stores cater to a wide range of customers, regardless of gender and age, who are interested in purchasing not just athletic shoes but also apparel, equipment and accessories brands for sports enthusiasts.
The segment grew 2.9% to $6.47 billion in sales during fiscal 2015 and contributed 87.3% in total sales. Athletic stores delivered a 13.5% margin, excluding corporate expenses.
Direct-to-Customers
The Direct-to-Customers segment operates its business by selling to customers through Internet and mobile sites and catalogs.
The segment operates the websites for eastbay.com, final-score.com, eastbayteamsales.com, sp24.com, footlocker.com, ladyfootlocker.com, six02.com, kidsfootlocker.com, champssports.com, footaction.com, footlocker.ca, footlocker.eu, runnerspoint.com and sidestep-shoes.com.
The segment grew 9.1% to $944 million in sales during fiscal 2015. The segment also delivered a 15% margin, excluding corporate expenses.
Overall, Foot Locker was able to grow its sales by 7.98% over the past five years, on average and its profits by 26.2% (2).
Comparable Store Sales (6)
(10-K, News Release, Quarterly Filings)
Cash, debt and book value
As of Oct. 29, Foot Locker had $865 in total cash and $128 million in debt with a healthy 0.05 debt-equity ratio. Foot Locker also had neither goodwill nor intangibles identified in its balance sheet for the period. The company had a book value of $2.6 billion compared to $2.5 billion in October of last year.
Cash flow
(Annual Report)
In review, Foot Locker grew its cash flow from operations by 4.6% to $745 million in fiscal 2015 (3). As observed, Foot Locker added $100 million with its pension litigation accrual. Without this, cash flow growth would have rather been -9.4% (4).
Capital expenditures were $228 million for fiscal 2015, compared to $190 million in fiscal 2014.
Foot Locker allocated $558 million, or 107.9% of free cash flow, in dividends and purchase of treasury shares. On average, the company allocated 99.3% of its free cash flow in these shareholder payouts for the past three years.
(Annual Report)
Conclusion
Foot Locker has been able to deliver good sales and profit growth numbers over the past five years. Its ability to achieve these impressive figures is admirable secondary to the finding that Foot Locker is able to grow its sales organically rather than relying on opening more stores. The retailer’s three-year (fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2015) store growth average was at 0.51%.
In addition, Foot Locker was able to achieve business growth while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and not relying on easy money to fuel its business development.
(Google Finance)
Because of this sustainability and reliability, Foot Locker’s shares are on a one-year high. Meanwhile, Piper Jaffray downgraded its shares to Neutral from Overweight on Nov. 21. On the other hand, analysts in Wedbush see the company’s shares as an outperform and had a price target of $80 per share before its recent earnings announcement.
Using five-year earnings multiple multiplied with the company’s historical profit growth rate and applying a 20% margin gave a value of $62 a share.
Foot Locker is a hold at these current levels and a buy if the share price goes below at least $65 a share.
Notes
(1) GuruFocus data.
(2) Morningstar data.
(3) Me: I was not able to find Foot Locker’s recent quarterly cash flow statement nor its 10-Q. Instead, I used cash flow data from its annual report.
(4) Annual report: Foot Locker described the charge, which reduced its fiscal 2015 diluted earnings per share by 43 cents in relation to the company that it failed to properly disclose the effects of the 1996 conversion of the retirement plan to a defined benefit plan with a cash balance formula.
(5) 10-K.
(6) 10-K: All references to comparable-store sales for a given period relate to sales of stores that were open at the period end and had been open for more than one year. The computation of comparable-store sales also includes the sales of the Direct-to-Customers segment. Stores opened or closed during the period are not included in the comparable-store base; however, stores closed temporarily for relocation or remodeling are included. Computations exclude the effect of foreign currency fluctuations.
Disclosure: I do not have shares in Foot Locker.
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