Now, looking to our balance sheet, we ended Q3 with approximately $1.4 billion of cash and cash equivalents and no borrowings on our $1.6 billion unsecured credit facility. Our quarter-end inventory levels decreased 2%, compared to Q3 of last year. Our inventory is well-positioned and we are excited about our assortment for the holiday season. Turning to our third quarter capital allocation. Net capital expenditures were $151 million and we paid $81 million in quarterly dividends. We also repurchased 3.5 million shares of our stock for $388.1 million at an average price of $112.46. Year-to-date, we have returned over $900 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. Let me wrap up with our outlook for 2023. As Lauren noted, as a result of our Q3 performance, we are raising our full year outlook.
We are confident in our key strategies and are well positioned to execute against what is in our control. At the same time, we are being appropriately cautious, particularly at the low end of our expectation, considering the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties. For the year, we now expect non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $12 to $12.60 compared to our prior expectation of $11.50 to $12.30. This continues to include approximately $0.20 coming from the 53rd week. In addition, we now expect comparable store sales in the range of positive 0.5% to positive 2%, compared to our prior expectation of flat to positive 2%. Including the 53rd week we expect roughly 250 basis points of non-comp sales growth for the full year. Specifically, this includes approximately $150 million in sales from the 53rd week, which is a smaller than average sales week for us.
At the midpoint, non-GAAP EBT margin is expected to be approximately 10.4%, compared to our prior expectation of 10.2%. We expect modest improvement in gross margin for the full year, which continues to include an approximate 50 basis points unfavorable impact from higher shrink compared to 2022. Specific to Q4, we expect to deliver continued gross margin and merch margin expansion on a year-over-year basis with some improvement versus our Q3 expansion. We also continue to expect SG&A expenses to deleverage on a full year, primarily due to the proactive investments in our growth strategies. Specific to Q4, we expect SG&A to deleverage by a similar magnitude as the third quarter. Our earnings guidance is based on an effective tax rate of approximately 21% and an approximately 86 million average diluted shares outstanding compared to our prior expectation of approximately 87 million average diluted shares outstanding.
In addition, we expect net capital expenditures between $550 million to $600 million for the year. As part of our business optimization, we incurred pretax charges totaling $52.5 million during the third quarter and currently expect to incur charges of approximately $10 million in fourth quarter. These charges were excluded from today’s non-GAAP outlook. We are still conducting our business optimization review, which we expect to be completed during fiscal 2023. This concludes our prepared comments. Thank you for your interest in DICK’S Sporting Goods. Operator, you may now open the line for questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll go first this morning to Simeon Gutman at Morgan Stanley.
Simeon Gutman: My first question is on the comps of the business, which have been much better than most retail categories and more resilient over the last couple of years. So, look, you see the detail, now you see the product categories, the trends. As you look at this composition and how the consumer is going, I’m trying to assess what the puts and takes are as you look forward. And if you want to share how you think about ‘24, fine, but more interested in what gives you confidence and what gives you pause.
Lauren Hobart: Thanks, Simeon. Yes, we are pleased with how our consumer is holding up within the sporting goods industry and then particularly that they’re choosing DICK’S increasingly to meet their needs. People are prioritizing a healthy and active lifestyle. They’re prioritizing team sports, outdoors, living, running, walking, all of those things. And so, we felt in this past quarter particularly pleased with an increase in transactions and ticket, and the fact that our consumers are not trading down that our consumer has held up very, very well. So as we look into Q4, as you’ve heard in our guidance, we are very excited about what we have within our control for Q4. Our products are in stock. We’ve got tremendous gifts.
And if you look at LinkedIn, I know you follow #DSGLife, but you’ll see what we call Reindeer Runs going on all across the country and the teams are pumped to deliver an amazing holiday experience. We’re balancing all of that with caution about the macroeconomic environment and the consumer because we know that consumers are going through a lot right now. So, I think we’ve been reasonably cautious in our guidance, but we’re very excited about how our consumers hold themselves.
Simeon Gutman: Okay. I’ll shift the follow-up to gross margin, although I have some more on top line but do it offline. On the gross margin, so in the last two years — last year you had — you worked with a vendor to move some inventory. This year, you had some outdoor markdowns. So, if you think about gross margins rebasing, do you look at those events as anomalies and you recapture that margin, or is this level the right baseline that gives you flexibility and then you could offer some upside from here?
