Big 5 Sporting Goods Inc. BGFVstock continues its bull run despite reporting lower-than-anticipated sales results for fourth-quarter fiscal 2017 while providing a soft outlook. The sales decline stemmed from an extremely challenging performance in December. Sales in December were largely hurt by nearly 50% decrease in core winter-product categories due to warmer-than-normal and dry weather conditions in most of its markets.
Lower demand for firearm-related products also hurt the quarterly sales.However, the company’s upside story mainly relates to the positive earnings surprise trend and commitment to enhancing customer experience through store expansion and effective merchandising strategies. Consequently, shares of Big 5 Sporting rallied 16.3% in the past month, against the industry’s decline of 1.2%.