Foot Locker beats Street, won't provide outlook

By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Foot Locker Inc (FL.N) posted a net loss compared with a year-ago profit on Wednesday due to impairment charges and the costs of store closure, and declined to provide a 2009 outlook.

The athletic shoe retailer's shares fell more than 3 percent.

The company, whose adjusted results beat Wall Street estimates, cited the economic uncertainty as the reason for not providing an outlook and said year-ago results were restated due to an accounting error.

"The impairment charges could be a concern. The fact they're restating could be a concern and the fact that they're not giving guidance," said Susquehanna analyst Christopher Svezia.

He noted the company's shares, up 13 percent since January and which closed up nearly 6 percent on Wednesday, outperformed the market over the past two weeks.

"I think people were expecting them to beat the numbers," Svezia added.

Foot Locker's fourth-quarter net loss was $126 million, or 82 cents per share, compared with a profit of $72 million, or 46 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding impairment charges related to writedowns, store closing costs and income tax adjustments, Foot Locker earned 24 cents per share.