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Foot Locker Profit up 48% on Cost Cutting

Jeanine Poggi

Foot Locker's(FL) profit jumped nearly 50% in the first quarter, sending its shares up sharply in after-market trading.

During the quarter, the company earned $31 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $21 million, or 14 cents, in the year-ago period.

"The merchandise inventory repositioning strategy that we undertook over the past two years allowed us to achieve the 130 basis-point increase in our gross margin rate versus the first quarter of last year," said CEO and Chairman Matthew D. Serra said in a statement.

Sales dropped 7% to $1.21 billion from $1.31 billion last year.

Foot Locker shares were moving Thursday after the bell at $11.00, up 5.3% from the regular session close of $10.45.

Last week, key supplier Nike(NKE) announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce, or 1,750 jobs worldwide.