Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation announced sales results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 29, 2019. For the fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, net sales were $244.1 million compared to net sales of $247.1 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. Same store sales decreased 0.6% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. The company's merchandise margins increased by approximately 239 basis points for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.

For the fiscal 2019 full year, net sales increased to $996.5 million from $987.6 million in fiscal 2018. Same store sales increased 1.2% for the fiscal 2019 full year. The company's merchandise margins increased approximately 66 basis points for the fiscal 2019 full year compared to fiscal 2018.

For the fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, the Company now expects to generate earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.02 to $0.04, which compares to the Company's previous guidance for the fourth quarter of a loss per share in the range of $0.04 to $0.16. For the fiscal 2019 full year, the company now expects to generate earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.40 to $0.42, including a net benefit of $0.01 per diluted share related to the favorable settlement of a software contract termination in the second quarter which was partially offset by a charge for the write-off of deferred tax assets related to share-based compensation in the first quarter. For purposes of comparison to the prior year, for the fiscal 2018 fourth quarter the Company realized a loss of $0.24 per share, which included $0.08 per share of charges as previously reported, and for the fiscal 2018 full year the company realized a loss of $0.17 per share, which included $0.09 per share of charges as previously reported.