NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) - Get Report stock is down 0.25% to $55.86 on very heavy trading volume today after Barclays increased its price target to $54 from $50, while maintaining an "equal weight" rating. 

"Despite a relatively challenging promotional environment and less-than-supportive weather trends, Dick's was able to drive strong core comps of 6% in its fourth quarter of 2014, a sequential movement versus 4.6% in its third quarter," analysts said. 

Dick's has been trying to turn around weak demand for its Gold Galaxy division, since winter is traditionally a slow period for the category, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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"However, this represents a modest sequential improvement suggesting that the drop off in golf is not as pronounced as it was earlier in the year," analysts noted. 

Dick's expects earnings between $3.10 and $3.20 per share for its first quarter in 2015, consistent with Barclays' earnings estimate of $3.15 per share, and the consensus earnings estimate of $3.20 per share. 

"Specific levers behind management's initial conservatism include the effects of port delays, which is delaying the receipt of spring inventory, and late winter weather, which is reducing early spring demand," Barclays said, adding that Dick's business appears to be reasonably well positioned for 2015, excluding these external issues.

Analysts still caution investors that non-golf/non-hunt businesses will need to continue to perform very well to drive significant comp acceleration in 2015. 

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates DICKS SPORTING GOODS INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate DICKS SPORTING GOODS INC (DKS) a BUY. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, growth in earnings per share and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 13.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 9.0%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has increased to -$49.46 million or 21.62% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, DICKS SPORTING GOODS INC has also modestly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 13.79%.
• DICKS SPORTING GOODS INC's earnings per share improvement from the most recent quarter was slightly positive. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, DICKS SPORTING GOODS INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.70 versus $2.31 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.80 versus $2.70).
• DKS's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.17 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Even though the company has a strong debt-to-equity ratio, the quick ratio of 0.14 is very weak and demonstrates a lack of ability to pay short-term obligations.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: DKS Ratings Report