Foot Locker Posts 3Q Loss on Charge, Sales Drop

Athletic shoes seller Foot Locker Inc. on Thursday reported a loss for the third quarter as consumers spent less at its stores and it wrote down the value of its assets by $22 million.

The company, based in New York, lost $6 million, or 4 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Oct. 31. That compares with a profit of $24 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding the asset charge, its adjusted profit of 10 cents per share fell short of the 13-cent-per-share prediction of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Its revenue fell 7 percent to $1.21 billion from $1.31 billion. Analysts had expected $1.19 billion.

"Our success in reducing expenses and tightly managing inventory helped to offset lower-than-anticipated sales in our U.S. operations," CEO Ken Hicks said in a statement.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key retail measure, fell 8.2 percent during the quarter. The figure is a key measure of retailer performance because it compares existing stores and excludes those that open or close during the year.

Foot Locker shares fell 79 cents, or 7.5 percent, to $9.80 in after-hours trading Thursday after closing at $10.59, down 4.6 percent from a day earlier.

As of Wednesday's close, the shares had fallen 13 percent the past 52 weeks.

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