Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) saw its stock climb more than 2% in premarket trading Tuesday after the retailer posted quarterly earnings that surpassed expectations, driven by robust eCommerce performance and contributions from new store openings—even as comparable sales edged lower.
For the third quarter, the company reported earnings of $1.14 per share, topping analyst forecasts of $1.07. Revenue totaled $1.38 billion, slightly shy of the $1.4 billion consensus estimate. Overall sales grew 3% year over year, while comparable sales slipped 0.9%.
Online demand was a key bright spot, with eCommerce revenue jumping 22.2%. Newly opened stores also performed well, delivering high single-digit comparable sales. Diluted GAAP EPS came in at $1.05, a 14% improvement over the prior-year period. Academy opened 11 new stores across 10 states during the quarter.
CEO Steve Lawrence said the company’s strategy is gaining momentum despite macroeconomic challenges, noting, “We continue to see an acceleration in our underlying growth strategies, despite the uncertain economic backdrop the consumer is facing.”
CFO Carl Ford added that results aligned with internal expectations and generated, “outperformance across our profit metrics including growth in gross margin, operating profit and net income.”
Academy narrowed its full-year 2025 sales outlook to a range of down 2% to flat, compared with its previous guidance of down 3% to up 1%. The retailer also raised the lower end of its gross margin forecast to 34.3%, up from 34%.
For fiscal 2026, the company projected earnings of $5.65 to $6.15 per share, above the consensus midpoint of $5.73. Revenue is expected to land between $6.03 billion and $6.2 billion, bracketing analysts’ estimate of $6.12 billion.