Here is the thing with their earnings report: It is intellectually dishonest and they are trying to game the market. Net income is actually decreasing, the only reason EPS is higher is because of stealth buyback.

From seeking alpha Conference call transcript(pg 2):
http://seekingalpha.com/article/125935-h...

"We spent $13.4 million in CapEx for the year versus the $24 million budget. We did not buy any stock back in the quarter but year-to-date we have repurchased approximately one million shares at $16.9 million and that was in the first quarter".

Notice what they are saying, they didnt buy back any stock in the quarter, but they have bought back 1 million shares so far this year.

In terms of net income:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=HIBB&ann...

Net Income Applicable To Common Shares:
$30,329 (2-Feb-08)
$38,073 (3-Feb-07)
$33,624 (28-Jan-06)

Notice how much lower Net Income is. In fact, year ending Feb 08 Net is lower than the Net two years ago. Despite all the store openings and so called improvements in IT, they are making less money now than they were two years ago.

Now look at shares outstanding:
http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/disp...

52 weeks ended january 31 2009
shares outstanding diluted 28,954

52 weeks ended feb 2 2008
weighted shares outstanding diluted 31,525

So, for all their talk on brilliant strategy, etc, you can see the earnings report is really a shell game. If you compare apples to apples, and by that I mean net income, this company sucks. The only reason EPS is higher is they diverted money that was budgeted for capex and spent it buying back overpriced shares.

While this may boost the appearance of earnings short term, this is not a viable long-term strategy. This stock is WAY overpriced.