DICK'S Sporting's Expansion Plans On Track With 5 New Stores

In an effort to strengthen store base and widen market reach, DICK'S Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE:DKS) announced the opening of five stores in the states of Maryland, Illinois, and Washington. Slated to open doors in the remaining weeks of October, these stores will bring the company’s countrywide store count to 718.

Markedly, DICK'S Sporting will open a store each at Chatham Station Shopping Center in Ellicott City, MD and Fairview City Centre in Fairview Heights, IL. The rest of the three stores in Washington will be opened at Parkway Supercenter in Tukwila, Tacoma Mall in Tacoma and Crossroads Bellevue in Bellevue.

In fact, grand opening celebrations of stores in Maryland and Illinois were held between Oct 13 and Oct 15. Events at the stores in Washington will take place between Oct 27 and Oct 29.

In order to attract customers during opening celebrations, the company announced attractive gifts and opportunities to win prizes. Also, several special guests will make in-store appearances.

Meanwhile, DICK'S Sporting aggressively continues with its store expansion strategy. Prior to the launch of these new outlets, management had introduced three flagship stores and one Field & Stream store across three states during the final weeks of September 2017. Going forward, we expect these actions to offset the challenges related to a tough retail space.

Currently, DICK'S Sporting seems to face extremely competitive, volatile and promotional environment, thus hurting the company’s results. In fact, these factors along with projections of an extremely challenging hunting category compelled management to cut its fiscal 2017 view.

Consequently, this Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock has plunged 50.6% in the last six months, wider than the industry’s decline of 21.1%.

Nevertheless, we expect DICK’S Sporting will gain from its omni-channel initiatives, though this might take time. Additionally, this sporting goods retailer is benefiting from the liquidation of rivals. In fact, we believe the company will better serve consumers in these communities with a wide array of top-class products and services.

Want to Know About the Gems in the Retail Space?

Some better-ranked stocks in the Retail space include Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) , Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) and DSW Inc. (NYSE:DSW) sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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