What Happened?
Shares of sporting goods retailer Academy Sports & Outdoor (NASDAQ: ASO) fell 10.9% in the afternoon session after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that fell short of Wall Street's expectations and provided a cautious outlook for the upcoming year.
The sporting goods retailer announced fourth-quarter sales of $1.72 billion, which was below the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.97, also missing the anticipated $2.05. Adding to investor concerns, the company's full-year revenue guidance of $6.27 billion at the midpoint came in about 3% below analysts' forecasts. This weak outlook, combined with a 1.6% decline in same-store sales, drove investor disappointment with the quarterly results.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Academy Sports’s shares are quite volatile and have had 19 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Academy Sports and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock dropped 8.5% on the news that the company reported second-quarter results that missed analyst expectations for both profit and sales. The company posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.94 per share, falling short of the consensus estimate of $2.13. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.6 billion, slightly below the expected $1.61 billion. While total sales grew 3.3% year-over-year and same-store sales were flat, a notable improvement from recent declines, these points were overshadowed by weakening profitability. The company's operating margin contracted to 10.8% from 12.3% in the same period last year. Despite the misses, management raised its full-year guidance for both revenue and earnings, but this failed to reassure investors, who reacted to the weaker-than-expected quarterly performance.
Academy Sports is down 3.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $50.53 per share, it is trading 17.4% below its 52-week high of $61.19 from February 2026. Despite the year-to-date decline, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Academy Sports’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,008.
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