Citi Reiterates Buy On Foot Locker (FL)

Citi Investment Research is reiterating its Buy rating on shares of Foot Locker FL after seeing a strong start to sales in August. In a research report to clients, Citi Investment Research notes, "FL's first 2 weeks of August are off to a very strong start, and we are encouraged on FL's 3Q comp guidance of +LSD-MSD and gross margins +100-150bps, but acknowledge likely SG&A de-leverage with dollars guided +$5mm-10mm higher. SG&A spend is likely prudent on store initiatives/opportunities (but mainly higher on incentive comp). FL also guided to negative F/X impact of ~-1c; we reduce our 3Q EPS slightly to $0.16 (from $0.18) on negative F/X and SG&A impact and our 3QE comp is ~+3%." Shares of Foot Locker are up 29 cents to $12.68.