Raphael Stevens

Molson Coors plans to cut supplier diversity quotas and DEI-based training programs, and sever ties with the Corporate Equality Index of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
The brewer’s decision comes after a wave of retailers over the summer took a step back in their DEI efforts.
Corporate DEI practices saw a major increase in 2020, but have been struggling in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action in colleges.

Coors beer is displayed on a store shelf on February 13, 2024 in San Rafael, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Molson Coors is the latest addition to a growing list of companies reversing their diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In an internal memo sent Wednesday and obtained by CNBC, Molson Coors executives said the company will be getting rid of supplier diversity quotas, adding that they can be “complicated and influenced by factors outside of [the company’s] control.”

But the brewer has said it will continue to make sure its suppliers are representative of the company’s diverse consumer base.
“We are ensuring our executive incentives are tied to business performance and do not include aspirational representation goals beginning next year,” company executives wrote in the memo.
Molson Coors also said it is developing “the next evolution” of its company trainings, which will focus on key business objectives instead of its previously DEI-based training programs that the company said all current U.S. employees have already participated in.
Molson Coors will rebrand its Employee Resource Groups as Business Resource Groups, while seemingly maintaining the existing function of the groups, and will cease participation in any voluntary “best of” third-party company rankings in the U.S., which includes the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index that ranks companies based on corporate equality measures for LGBTQ+ individuals. The brewer had scored a perfect 100 points previously.
“This will not impact the benefits we provide our employees, nor will it change or diminish our commitment to fostering a strong culture where every one of our employees knows they are welcome at our bar,” the company said.

Molson Coors will also ensure all corporate charitable giving programs are focused on supporting “core business goals” such as alcohol responsibility, disaster relief efforts and promoting access to higher education. The company had raised more than $700,000 nationally for LGBTQ+-focused organizations through its “Tap Into Change” program since 2011 and sponsored Pride festivals.
Although conservative activist Robby Starbuck characterized the moves as preemptive changes in response to his probe into the company’s DEI practices one week ago, Molson Coors says in its memo that the decision “has been in process since March.”
Molson Coors’ decision comes after a wave of retailers over the summer took a step back in their DEI efforts.
Rural retailer Tractor Supply started the trend when it severed ties with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and retired previous DEI targets like boosting the number of employees of color at the managerial level. Companies like Harley-Davidson and Lowe’s followed suit. Most recently, Ford executives highlighted plans to slash supplier diversity quotas and cut the company’s relationship with the HRC’s metric.
Corporate DEI practices received renewed interest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, but have struggled in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to overturn affirmative action in colleges. Although the reversal of affirmative action concerns academic institutions and has no legal bearing on corporate initiatives, companies are concerned that the growing anti-DEI sentiment will bleed into corporate America.

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The domestic summer box office secured $3.6 billion in ticket sales, a 10% drop from the same period in 2023, but a markedly better outcome than anyone in the industry was expecting.
Entering into the summer movie season, the domestic box office was down 22% from the previous year and lacking the traditional kick-off of a Marvel Cinematic Universe flick.
The unlikely duo of “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” from Disney boosted ticket sales for the summer period.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman star in Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

Box office analysts and cinema owners braced themselves a few months ago for the possibility that the summer movie season could be the worst showing in a decade.
Thanks to some anthropomorphic emotions and a bad-mouthed, fourth-wall breaking antihero, the domestic summer box office scraped together $3.6 billion in ticket sales. While that’s a 10% drop from the same period in 2023, it’s a markedly better outcome than anyone in the industry was expecting.

“In the wake of the $4 billion ‘Barbenheimer’-powered summer of 2023, expectations heading into May were tempered as the industry braced for what would certainly be a more modest summer revenue result for 2024,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Summer box office tallies

2024 — $3.6 billion
2023 — $4 billion
2022 — $3.4 billion
2021 — $1.7 billion
2020 — $176.2 million
2019 — $4.3 billion
2018 — $4.4 billion
2017 — $3.8 billion
2016 — $4.4 billion
2015 — $4.4 billion
2014 — $4 billion
2013 — $4.7 billion*
2012 — $4.2 billion

* Record summer box office revenue
Source: Comscore

Entering into the summer movie season, which starts the first weekend in May and runs through Labor Day, the domestic box office was down 22% from the previous year and lacking the traditional kick-off of a Marvel Cinematic Universe flick.
In fact, it was the first time since 2009 that the summer box office didn’t have a blockbuster superhero film to start the season — and it showed.

Disney and Marvel Studios have consistently launched this highly lucrative moviegoing season over the last two decades. In fact, only two films in the Marvel franchise that released at the beginning of summer have generated less than $100 million on opening weekend — not including pandemic years.
This year, the headline film for the first summer weekend was Universal’s “The Fall Guy.” And despite strong marketing efforts and solid reviews, the movie failed to drum up ticket sales. The film tallied less than $28 million during its domestic debut and stalled out shy of $100 million during its domestic run.
Warner Bros. and George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” also spun out. The high-octane action flick snared just $67 million during its domestic run.
Meanwhile, Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” overperformed expectations, tallying $171 million during its run.
But it wasn’t until mid-June that the box office got a proper surge of moviegoers. Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” smashed records and marked the return of the beleaguered animation studio. Through Labor Day, the film was the highest-grossing summer movie with $650 million in box office receipts.
“Thankfully May gloom turned into a much needed June boom, as a string of box office overachievers set off a chain reaction that carried forward all the way into August,” Dergarabedian said.
The summer got another boost from “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which arrived in late July. The third installment in the Deadpool franchise, and the first for Disney’s MCU, sliced through records for an R-rated film, tallying north of $600 million domestically through the holiday weekend.
Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4,” Universal’s “Twisters” and Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” also made large contributions to the summer box office alongside breakout hits like Disney’s “Alien Romulus,” Sony’s “It Ends With Us” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One.” The 15th anniversary re-release of “Coraline” by Fathom also padded the total with $31 million in ticket sales.
These titles also contributed to the more than $900 million in ticket sales accrued during the month of August, marking the highest August haul since 2016.
Box office analysts foresee the summer’s momentum carrying over into the fall, ultimately bolstering the overall third-quarter box office results.
“Our confidence in a better than projected 3Q result is bolstered by a solid September lineup of releases including ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ (now tracking towards a reported $80mn+ opening weekend), horror title ‘Speak No Evil,’ and animated features ‘Transformers One’ (tracking for a $40mn+ opening) and ‘The Wild Robot,'” Eric Handler, an analyst at Roth MKM, wrote in a research note published Tuesday. “If September finishes up low double digits from last year, the quarter would end being down low single digits.”
It’s unclear if the full-year box office will reach 2023 levels — last year’s dual labor strikes, which disrupted production, continue to weigh heavily on the cinema slate — but there are plenty of appealing titles arriving in theaters in the coming months.
“There may not be a pound-for-pound juggernaut on the scale of ‘Inside Out 2’ or ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ but the aggregate of sequels from appealing franchises like Beetlejuice, Transformers, Joker, Smile, and Venom offer plenty of reason for moviegoers, theaters, and studios to be excited about the next two months,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

Tune in to CNBC all day on Sept. 5 for coverage of the Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations

Most major sports media rights deals are locked up for the immediate future, making it difficult to determine how the ongoing shake-up across media companies will affect valuations.
The NFL can opt out of its current media rights deal, which is valued at $111 billion over 11 years, with all of its media partners, except Disney, after the 2028-2029 season.
The NFL will likely wait to see how turmoil in the media industry — from consolidation to the dwindling of the pay TV bundle — alters company balance sheets before determining if it’ll opt out of its current deal.

A view of a ESPN cameraman during the game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cincinnati Bengals on December 4, 2023 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fl. 
David Rosenblum | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

In 2021, the National Football League signed an 11-year, $111 billion media rights deal. In July, the National Basketball Association signed an 11-year, $77 billion deal of its own.
What’s next? Well, not much all that soon.

While Ultimate Fighting Championship and Formula 1 have deals expiring in 2025, the vast majority of major college and professional sports have recently signed long-term media rights deals with U.S. TV networks and streamers.
Welcome to the sports media rights doldrums. Or, the calm before the storm.
The NFL can opt out of its current deal with all of its media partners — except Disney, which has a slightly different deal structure — after the 2028-29 season. By that time, driven by the pace of change among the largest media companies, the entire landscape could be significantly different than it is today, dramatically altering how much revenue leagues generate and who is paying.
“Anyone telling you with any degree of certainty the NFL is going to opt out or not is bananas,” said Daniel Cohen, executive vice president of global media rights consulting at Octagon. “There’s so much you can’t predict even two years out, never mind six.”
The NFL’s opt-out decision, while years away, is the next potential tectonic shift that will influence the balance of power in media. It’s possible the NFL could choose to end deals with longtime Sunday afternoon media providers such as Fox and Paramount Global’s CBS in favor of streamers, such as Apple, Amazon, Google’s YouTube or even Netflix.

It will also be a significant driver of future NFL team valuations. On Thursday, CNBC will reveal its Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations list, ranking all 32 professional franchises.

Media’s transformation

Given the current state of media, with Paramount Global agreeing to merge with Skydance Media by mid-2025, Warner Bros. Discovery actively looking for partners to build scale and share the cost of content, and Netflix jumping into live sports with its acquisition of Christmas Day NFL games, the potential bidders for games in four to five years could be dramatically different than today. That will determine how much of an increase the NFL may get on its next rights deal.
“There probably will be companies that don’t exist today that will merge to create new competitive bidders,” said former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, who founded sports media consulting firm Pilson Communications. “Other deals, like the NBA, are a data point, but the NFL is its own marketplace. The programming is the honey. It’s all driven by the popularity of the NFL.”
Another determination of how much sports media rights deals will escalate in the future will be the state of the dwindling pay TV bundle. There have been 4 million pay TV customer losses this year to date, “a mindboggling total for just six months,” according to a recent MoffettNathanson report.
Live sports has long been the glue holding the bundle together, and a majority of viewership still comes from traditional TV versus streaming.
The economics of the bundle — still a cash cow for content providers like Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal — have driven rights increases for decades. Meanwhile, streaming has yet to turn a profit for most media companies.
Traditionally, the reach of broadcast networks, particularly in rural areas that still don’t have consistent high-speed internet, has caused the NFL to value Fox, Disney, NBCUniversal and CBS — all of which own broadcast networks. Most NFL games air on national broadcasters.
The NBA has also replaced its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, which doesn’t own a broadcast network, with NBCUniversal, which does.
But four years from now, it’s possible the ongoing shift to streaming, combined with Big Tech’s deeper pockets, will convince the NFL to view broadcasting as anachronistic rather than essential.
On the other hand, if streamers become the sole distributors of sports, they’ll have all the market power, which could stifle valuations.
“If you put all your eggs in the streaming parties’ baskets, and if legacy media is hobbled to the point they can’t pay for media rights anymore, then you’re giving streamers a lot of market power,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at Perkins Coie.

Rights locked up

Bank of America recently put together a chart of recent media rights deals and their estimated values. Some of the numbers are slightly different than reported figures.

The National Hockey League’s deal with its media partners lasts through the 2027-28 season.
Major League Baseball’s deal is up in 2028 — and will likely be shaped more by the expiration of the players’ collective bargaining agreement in 2026 than the state of the media industry. Still, the vastly changing regional sports business, on top of the traditional TV landscape, could make MLB a litmus test for the rights deals that follow.
The PGA Tour’s media deal runs through 2030. NBCUniversal owns the Winter Olympics until 2030 and the Summer Olympics until 2032. NASCAR signed a contract late last year with media carriers until 2031. ESPN locked up the College Football Playoffs until 2031. Apple inked a deal for Major League Soccer until 2032.
The long-term nature of these deals has given the current media ecosystem some certainty. That’s a benefit for the leagues, media companies and pay TV providers, who all rely on the consistency of cash flow.
“My advice to clients is that if you’re in a deal that feels fair right now, or that is analytically fair to good, don’t go searching for something great,” said Octagon’s Cohen, who represents several professional sports leagues in their media deals. “Things will keep evolving over the next six years, so it’s best to hold onto a good deal.”
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
Tune in: CNBC reveals the Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations Thursday, Sept. 5 on air and online. More

TULSA, Okla. — Parts and labor shortages. Delayed deliveries of new airplanes from Boeing and Airbus. An engine recall. Premature repairs. It’s all piling up, and aircraft engine shops around the world are overflowing. 
As travelers boarded planes in record numbers this summer, airline executives waited anxiously for repairs and overhauls of their engines.

The repair and overhaul of engines has swelled from a $31 billion business before the pandemic to $58 billion this year, according to Alton Aviation Consultancy. It’s a cash cow for engine makers like GE Aerospace and the hundreds of smaller specialists that service GE engines, and others made by Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce.
American Airlines’ solution is to do more of the work itself.
“We just have one customer and that’s American Airlines doing our work,” American’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said. “We can control our own destiny in that area.”

American Airlines workers perform maintenance on CFM-56 engine in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Erin Black | CNBC

At its bustling engine shop at the airline’s 3.3 million-square-foot maintenance facility at Tulsa International Airport, the largest such space in the world, American is on track to increase its overhauls roughly 60% from 2023 to more than 16 engines a month this year. That’s up from five a month in 2022. It’s added some 200 jobs there, as well more equipment like cranes to hang the 2-ton engines during overhauls.
The work focuses on CFM56 engines, made by a joint venture of GE and France’s Safran. They power American’s older Boeing 737 workhorse jetliners and many Airbus A320s. Those narrow-body airplanes make up the majority of American’s mainline fleet of more than 960 aircraft, according to an annual company securities filing.

“I can get these engines overhauled and through the shop in less than 60 days versus [outside] shops nowadays [are] 120 to 150 days, in some cases north of 200 days,” COO Seymour said.

Bottlenecks abound

American Airlines workers overhaul an engine at a hangar in Tulsa, Okla.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

Much of the bottleneck in engine repairs stems from the industry’s rocky emergence from the pandemic, when companies shed thousands of skilled workers. Airlines that delayed maintenance during the travel slump then raced to get airplanes into shape to fly when demand snapped back, but faced worker and experience shortages and shortfalls of key items from engine components to aircraft seats.
Meanwhile, Airbus and Boeing are behind on deliveries of new, more fuel-efficient airplanes, forcing carriers, including American, to hold on to older jetliners longer than they planned.
Airbus this summer reduced its aircraft delivery forecast and announced cost cuts as it grapples with supply chain issues and late-arriving landing gear and engines.
“I would also call it the surprise factor for 2024,” Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer said on a July 30 earnings call.
In addition to supply chain issues, Boeing aircraft have been delayed as the company navigates a safety crisis after a door panel blew out from one of its 737 Max planes midair at the start of the year.

With many engines needing overhauls about every 7,000 flights, keeping older airplanes longer means more routine maintenance and revamps, adding to demand when they’re due to come into the shop. Those weekslong overhauls are exhaustive: They can cost $5 million apiece and can go for double that for wide-body airplanes, according to Kevin Michaels, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory.

At American’s shop in Tulsa, workers remove hundreds of parts, replacing life-limited components and cleaning and inspecting others, which includes spraying them down with a a fluorescent penetrant so defects can be seen under a black light.

An American Airlines worker sprays florescent penetrant on engine components to check for defects at a hangar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

But key parts are hard to find and they must be flawless. Plus, they’re costly. The dozens of engine compressor blades can go for $30,000 a pop.
On top of that, some newer engines — which run hotter, take in more air and burn less fuel than older types — are coming into engine shops earlier than expected, frustrating airline CEOs.
“There’s no business which can digest not using the key assets to generate revenue,” said AirBaltic CEO Martin Gauss.
The Riga, Latvia-based carrier, an Airbus A220 customer, had to lease planes in recent years to make up for its grounded jets.
“Unfortunately, passengers are not happy when they can’t fly on new aircraft,” he said. “It is an issue which will be over one day. We thought it would be over by now. I would give it another two years and then we are through it.”
There’s another problem that’s clogging up engine shops: A Pratt & Whitney engine recall of some of its narrow-body engines. In light of the ongoing issues, some low-cost airlines, including JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, are deferring new jet deliveries to try to save money.
“It’s kind of a wicked brew that’s had a significant impact on the engine supply chain,” said AeroDynamic Advisory’s Michaels.

Windfall for engine makers

American Airlines worker looks inside engine at maintenance shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Erin Black | CNBC

The high demand for engine overhauls has been lucrative for engine suppliers, which make billions from maintaining engines they sell with new airplanes.
GE Aerospace brought in $11.7 billion from engine maintenance, repairs and overhaul in the first half of 2024, making up 65% of its revenue.
“When it comes to engines, it’s a razor-razor blade business,” said Michaels, describing how buying shavers in a drug store can mean repeat business for replacement blades for years. “So the money is made in the aftermarket on the engine business.”

Read more CNBC airline news

GE Aerospace, which became an independent company in April, said in July that it will invest $1 billion to upgrade its engine shops around the world over the next five years.

Got spares?

For many airlines, there aren’t many alternatives to costly engine overhauls with demand on the rise for replacement engines, especially if the carrier has one type of aircraft or a model that only has one supplier.

An airplane engine at American Airlines’ test cell in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

Rental rates for engines that match up with both old and new planes have skyrocketed. For example, a CFM56 engine used on the Boeing 737-800 was going for $96,000 a month up from $78,000 in 2017, according to aviation data firm IBA.
Both Pratt & Whitney and CFM engines that power the newer Airbus A320neo airplanes, meanwhile, have logged lease rates of $127,000 per month, up from $80,000 and $85,000, respectively, in 2017, IBA said.
Leasing firms like AerCap and Avolon have been snatching up spare engines because of the high demand.
It is still difficult to get into an engine shop, however.
Delta Air Lines, like American, overhauls, repairs and maintains its own engines. It also does work for other airlines, but CEO Ed Bastian says the shop is full.
“If you’re not on an existing contract, you’re not getting in,” he said in an interview in July. “It would be easier to get into a Taylor Swift concert.” More

Dollar Tree cut its full-year outlook, citing increasing pressures on middle-income and higher-income customers.
Dollar stores, in particular, have felt pinched as their core customer make tradeoffs after a prolonged period of pricier food and everyday costs.
Dollar Tree same-store sales for the company rose by 0.7% in the quarter.

A sign is posted in front of a Dollar Tree and Family Dollar store on March 13, 2024 in Rio Vista, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Shares of Dollar Tree fell about 10% in premarket trading Wednesday after the discounter cut its full-year outlook, citing increasing pressures on middle-income and higher-income customers.
The retailer said it now expects its full-year consolidated net sales outlook to range between $30.6 billion and $30.9 billion. It expects adjusted earnings per share to range from $5.20 to $5.60. That compares to previous guidance of $31 billion to $32 billion in net sales and $6.50 to $7 for adjusted earnings per share.

In a news release, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Davis said the company cut the forecast to reflect softer sales and costs associated with converting 99 Cents Only stores. The company also said it has had higher expenses to reimburse, settle and litigate claims related to customer accidents and other incidents at stores.
Here’s how Dollar Tree did in its fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 3:

Earnings per share: 62 cents, it was not immediately clear if it was comparable to what analysts surveyed by LSEG expected
Revenue: $7.38 billion, it was not immediately clear if it was comparable

Dollar Tree’s report comes about a week after major rival Dollar General slashed its full-year sales and profit outlook, sending its shares tumbling. Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos chalked up weak sales to “a core customer who feels financially constrained.”
Dollar stores, in particular, have felt pinched as their core customer — shoppers with lower incomes and little leftover money to spend on discretionary items — make tradeoffs after a prolonged period of pricier food and everyday costs. Walmart has won more business from value-conscious shoppers across incomes and newer online players, such as Temu, have also attracted customers with cheap merchandise.
Dollar Tree includes two store chains, its namesake, which sells a wide variety of lower-priced items like party supplies, and Family Dollar, which carries more food.

Same-store sales for the company rose by 0.7% in the quarter. At Dollar Tree, same-store sales increased by 1.3% and at Family Dollar, same-store sales fell by 0.1%. The industry metric takes out the impact of store openings and closures.
On an earnings call, Davis said the company saw weaker sales, particularly on the discretionary side of the business. He said it “reflected the increasing effect of macro pressures on the purchasing behavior of the Dollar Tree’s middle and higher-income customers.”
“Our original second quarter outlook did not anticipate those pressures migrating to Dollar Tree’s customer base to the degree that they did,” he said.
Along with contending with inflation-stretched shoppers, Dollar Tree has faced company-specific challenges. The retailer announced in March that it would close about 1,000 Family Dollar stores, citing market conditions and store performance. Then, in June, the company said it is considering selling the Family Dollar brand.
Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar for nearly $9 billion in 2015 and since then, it’s struggled to strengthen the grocery-focused chain and better compete with Dollar General.
The liability claims also added to the company’s challenges. On the company’s earnings call, Davis said the outcome of claims, particularly older ones, “has become increasingly challenging to predict given the higher settlement and litigation costs that have resulted from a more volatile insurance environment.” 
“The claims have continued to develop unfavorably due to the rising cost to reimburse, settle, and litigate these claims, which impacted our actuarially determined liabilities,” he said.
As of Tuesday’s close, Dollar Tree’s shares are down nearly 43% so far this year. The company’s stock hit a 52-week low on Tuesday and closed the day at $81.65. More

Dick’s Sporting Goods beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
The sporting goods store raised its full-year outlook as a result but the forecast appeared muted compared with expectations.
This time last year, Dick’s profits were under pressure from aggressive markdowns and theft but those issues now appear to be under control.

A Dick’s Sporting Goods store at the Los Cerritos Center shopping mall on February 21, 2024 in Cerritos, California. 
Kirby Lee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Dick’s Sporting Goods on Wednesday blew past Wall Street’s earnings estimates in its fiscal second quarter and while the retailer did raise its full-year guidance as a result, the new outlook fell flat up against expectations. 
The sporting goods store comes behind a string of other retailers that issued muted or cautious guidance for the back half of the fiscal year as companies prepare for the presidential election in November and what some fear could lead to a slowdown in consumer spending. 

Here’s how Dick’s did compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

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

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Aug. 3 was $362 million, or $4.37 per share, compared with $244 million, or $2.82 per share, a year earlier. 
Sales rose to $3.47 billion, up about 8% from $3.22 billion a year earlier. Comparable sales climbed 4.5% — ahead of the 3.6% that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
In a statement, CEO Lauren Hobart said comparable sales were driven by both transactions and tickets — indicating more people are coming to Dick’s stores and spending more while they’re there.
For fiscal 2024, Dick’s is now expecting diluted earnings per share to be between $13.55 and $13.90, up from previous guidance of $13.35 to $13.75 per share. At the midpoint, Dick’s only raised its earnings guidance by about 18 cents, even though its fiscal second-quarter earnings came in 54 cents higher than expected. At the low end, Dick’s earnings guidance falls a bit short of the $13.79 that analysts had expected, according to LSEG. 

Dick’s maintained its sales guidance of $13.1 billion to $13.2 billion, which also fell flat compared with the $13.24 billion that analysts were looking for, according to LSEG. The company did raise its projections for comparable sales growth and is now expecting them 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, according to StreetAccount. 
Last week, the company disclosed in a securities filing that it was the victim of a cyberattack and “certain confidential information” was breached. Dick’s said that it activated its “cybersecurity response plan” as a result and engaged with external experts to investigate and isolate the threat.
In its filing, Dick’s said it didn’t have any knowledge of the breach disrupting business operations and based on the information it had, it didn’t believe the incident was material.
This time last year, Dick’s shocked investors when it said that theft – along with aggressive markdowns for languishing inventory – would impact its full-year profit expectations, sending its stock down 24%. At the time, profits were down about 23% but given Wednesday’s earnings beat, it appears as if those woes are now behind the company. 
A number of other retailers – including Target and Walmart – said over the last couple of weeks that shrink, or lost inventory from a range of factors including theft and damage, had moderated. One of the top issues that retailers said they were facing throughout 2023, shrink appears to be in the rearview mirror for some after making investments into operations, technology and a reduction in the use of self-checkout machines. 
Over the last few weeks, a range of retailers put out second-quarter numbers that beat expectations but issued guidance for the last two quarters of 2024 that were either muted or poor compared with the company’s performance. Retailers have been bracing themselves for the upcoming election in November and the impact it could have on consumer spending. Beyond the election, there’s also uncertainties tied to the Federal Reserve’s expected rate cut and the impact that could have on discretionary spending. 
Dick’s is slated to discuss its results with analysts and share more insights on its guidance at 8 a.m. ET. More