ASO

MKT CAP $3.8BP/E 10.3DIV YIELD —FCF YIELD 8.71%REV TTM $6.2B +3.7%NET INCOME $395.9M +6.7%NET DEBT $195.9M52W 41.73 – 61.78SEC XBRL · TTM TO Invalid Date

How ASO rewrote its risk factors

10-K ITEM 1A · FY2025 → FY2026

Text kept

42%

of sentences unchanged

Added

282

new sentences

Dropped

282

sentences removed

Length

−1,047

words, now 29,930

New in FY2026

Unless otherwise specified, all comparisons or changes regarding 2025 are made to 2024.
All references in this discussion and analysis to “2025”, “2024” and “2023” or like terms relate to our fiscal years as follows: Fiscal Year Ended Weeks 2025 January 31, 2026 52 2024 February 1, 2025 52 2023 February 3, 2024 53 Overview We are a leading full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer in the United States.
Our product assortment focuses on key categories of outdoors, sports & recreation, apparel, and footwear (representing 31%, 22%, 27% and 20% of our 2025 net sales, respectively) through both leading national brands and a portfolio of private label brands, which go well beyond traditional sporting goods and apparel offerings.
Our net sales and profits are also impacted by the July/August back-to-school selling season during the second and third quarters, the November/December holiday selling season, and in part by the sales of cold weather sporting goods and apparel during the fourth quarter.
As of January 31, 2026, we operated 322 stores that range in size from approximately 40,000 to 130,000 gr oss square feet, with an average size of approxima tel y 70,000 gro ss square feet, through ou t 21 contiguous states located primarily in the southern United States.
Our stores are supported by approxi mately 23,000 team members, three distribution centers, and our e-commerce platform, which includes our website at www.academy.com and our mobile app.
The following table summarizes store activity for the periods indicated: Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026 February 1, 2025 February 3, 2024 Beginning stores 298 282 268 Q1 new stores 5 2 1 Q2 new stores 3 1 1 Q3 new stores 11 8 5 Q4 new stores 5 5 7 Closed — — — Ending stores 322 298 282 Relocated stores — — — Tariffs and Other Macroeconomic Trends We continue to monitor global macroeconomic trends and uncertainties such as inflation, existing and potential tariffs, and other shifting trade policies, which have impacted consumer spending and could adversely affect our ability to grow sales and merchandise margin.
The impact of the evolving macroeconomic environment on our financial results is uncertain.
We have worked diligently to mitigate the impact of tariffs on our business.
We are closely monitoring the evolving environment with respect to tariffs and other trade policy developments and will continue to adjust plans as needed, including, but not limited to, inventory purchase quantities and timing, strategic pricing and promotional adjustments to maintain value for our customers, diversifying sourcing to shift country of origin, and vendor negotiations.
How We Assess the Performance of Our Business Our management considers a number of financial and operating metrics, including the following key metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, determine the allocation of resources, make decisions regarding corporate strategies and evaluate projections.
Various other factors affect comparable sales, including consumer preferences; buying trends and overall economic trends; our ability to identify and respond effectively to customer preferences and local and regional trends; our ability to provide an assortment of high quality/value oriented product offerings that generate new and repeat visits to our stores and our website; the customer experience and unique services we provide in our stores; our ability to execute our omnichannel strategy, including the growth of our e-commerce business; changes in product mix and pricing, including promotional activities; the number of items purchased per visit and average order value; unseasonal or extreme weather; a shift in the timing of a holiday between comparable periods; and the number of stores that have been in operation for more than thirteen months.
Net sales fluctuations can be driven by new store openings, comparable sales increases or decreases including e-commerce sales, our ability to adjust inventory based on sales fluctuations, our management of vendor relations and meeting customer demand, allowances and logistics, seasonality, unseasonal or extreme weather, changes in consumer shopping preferences, consumer discretionary spending, and changes in product mix and pricing, including promotional activities.
We deploy several tools to improve inventory handling and vendor management, including third-party programs to analyze our inventory stock, execute a disciplined markdown strategy and improve our inventory management throughout the year at every location.
We have coupled these tools with the data we collect from our myAcademy Rewards program, our customer database and targeted customer surveys, so that we can better estimate future inventory requirements.
Our broad assortment gives us an advantage over mass general merchants who typically do not carry the full assortment of leading national brands sold at Academy.
We have also continued to add private label brands to our assortment of products, which we generally price lower than the national brand products of comparable quality that we also offer.
A shift in our sales mix in which we sell more units of our private label brand products and fewer units of the national brand products would generally have a positive impact on our gross margin rate but an adverse impact on our total net sales.
A shift in sales mix toward softgoods would generally have a positive impact on gross margin and a shift in sales mix towards hardgoods would generally have a negative impact on gross margin rate.
The expansion and enhancement of our omnichannel capabilities have contributed to increased sales in recent years.
We continue to invest in initiatives designed to drive traffic to our stores and e-commerce platforms, including our website and mobile application, improve conversion, and support our long-term objective of continuing to increase our e-commerce penetration of sales.
These initiatives include investments in our customer data ecosystem (data lake and Customer Data Platform), enabling customer-level attributes and models that power personalization and deepen engagement.
We are implementing enhancements to the online shopping experience, including a redesigned homepage, expanded BOPIS functionality, enhanced shipping notifications, and ongoing improvements in product discovery and site experience.
Our e-commerce platform supports store operations by driving customer demand, providing real-time product discovery and inventory visibility, and enabling store-fulfilled transactions such as BOPIS, ship-to-store, and ship-from-store.
During 2025, stores facilitated approximately 95% of our total sales, including ship-from-store, BOPIS, and in-store retail sales.
We expect to continue investing in the expansion and enhancement of our omnichannel capabilities, including our mobile application, website experience optimization, fulfillment improvements, and emerging digital commerce capabilities such as artificial intelligence-enabled shopping experiences and social and marketplace commerce integrations.
These initiatives are intended to support long-term growth and improve customer experience, and will require ongoing investment.
Our growth strategy encompasses both deepening our presence in legacy and existing markets as well as entering new markets, leveraging enhanced brand awareness and operational efficiencies.
During the fiscal year 2025, we opened 24 new stores.
We plan to open 20 to 25 stores in fiscal year 2026 and we are continuously evaluating available locations that meet our size requirements and market criteria.
Our strategic real estate approach, including the 63 stores opened since fiscal year 2021, has positioned us effectively for continued expansion.
Cost of goods sold includes the direct cost of merchandise and costs related to procurement, warehousing and distribution.
These costs consist primarily of tariffs, payroll and benefits, distribution center occupancy costs, depreciation and freight, and are generally variable in nature relative to our inventory receipts and sales volume.
Our gross margin is also impacted by variables including tariffs, commodity costs, freight costs, shrinkage (discussed below), inventory processing costs, and e-commerce shipping costs.
SG&A expenses as a percentage of sales increased from 24.8% in 2024 to 26.3% in 2025.
Management of SG&A expenses depends on our ability to balance operating costs, such as store and corporate headcount, information technology infrastructure and marketing and advertising expenses, while efficiently and effectively servicing our customers.
Selling, general, and administrative expenses on the Consolidated Statements of Income includes gains of approximately $15.4 million in 2025 and $7.1 million in 2024 related to multiple sale-leaseback transactions which qualified for sale accounting under ASC 606 (see Note 11).
The following table summarizes our pre-opening expense activity for the periods presented: Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026 February 1, 2025 February 3, 2024 Number of new stores opened 24 16 14 Pre-opening expenses (in millions) $ 14.6 $ 13.9 $ 8.3 Interest Expense.
Interest expense includes regular interest payable related to our Term Loan, Notes and ABL Facility (see Note 4) and the amortization of our deferred loan costs and original issuance discounts associated with the acquisition of the debt.
Results of Operations A discussion regarding Results of Operations and Analysis of Financial Condition for the fiscal year ended February 1, 2025, as compared to the fiscal year ended February 3, 2024, is included in “Part II – Item 7.

and 242 more.

Gone since FY2025

Unless otherwise specified, all comparisons or changes regarding 2024 are made to 2023.
All references in this discussion and analysis to “2024”, “2023” and “2022” or like terms relate to our fiscal years as follows: Fiscal Year Ended Weeks 2024 February 1, 2025 52 2023 February 3, 2024 53 2022 January 28, 2023 52 Overview We are a leading full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer in the United States.
Our product assortment focuses on key categories of outdoors, apparel, sports & recreation and footwear (representing 30%, 27%, 23% and 20% of our 2024 net sales, respectively) through both leading national brands and a portfolio of private label brands, which go well beyond traditional sporting goods and apparel offerings.
Our net sales and profits are also impacted by the August/September back-to-school selling season during the third quarter, the November/December holiday selling season, and in part by the sales of cold weather sporting goods and apparel during the fourth quarter.
As of February 1, 2025, we operat ed 298 sto res that range in size from approximately 40,000 to 130,000 gross square feet, with an average size of approxima tely 70,000 gro ss square feet, through out 19 cont iguous states located primarily in the southern United States.
Our stores are supported by approxi mately 22,000 team members, three distribution centers, and our e-commerce platform, which includes our website at www.academy.com and our mobile app.
The following table summarizes store activity for the periods indicated: Fiscal Year Ended February 1, 2025 February 3, 2024 January 28, 2023 Beginning stores 282 268 259 Q1 new stores 2 1 1 Q2 new stores 1 1 1 Q3 new stores 8 5 4 Q4 new stores 5 7 3 Closed — — — Ending stores 298 282 268 Relocated stores — — — How We Assess the Performance of Our Business and Recent Trends Our management considers a number of financial and operating metrics, including the following key metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, determine the allocation of resources, make decisions regarding corporate strategies and evaluate projections.
Various other factors affect comparable sales, including consumer preferences, buying trends and overall economic trends; our ability to identify and respond effectively to customer preferences and local and regional trends; our ability to provide an assortment of high quality/value oriented product offerings that generate new and repeat visits to our stores and our website; the customer experience and unique services we provide in our stores; our ability to execute our omnichannel strategy, including the growth of our e-commerce business; changes in product mix and pricing, including promotional activities; the number of items purchased per visit and average order value; a shift in the timing of a holiday between comparable periods; and the number of stores that have been in operation for more than thirteen months.
The comparable sales metric for 2024 (52 week fiscal year) compares the fiscal year ending February 1, 2025 to the final 52 weeks of the fiscal year 2023 ended February 3, 2024.
Merchandise net sales for the 2023 53rd week were $73.3 million.
Net sales fluctuations can be driven by new store openings, comparable sales increases or decreases including e-commerce sales, our ability to adjust inventory based on sales fluctuations, our management of vendor relations and meeting customer demand, allowances and logistics, seasonality, unseasonal or extreme weather, changes in consumer shopping preferences, consumer discretionary spending, and market and sales promotions.
We have deployed several new tools over recent years to improve inventory handling and vendor management, including third-party programs to analyze our inventory stock and execute a disciplined markdown strategy throughout the year at every location.
This implementation, along with other factors, has allowed us to improve our inventory management in stores over the past few years.
We have coupled these tools with the data we have been able to collect from our Academy Credit Card program, our customer database and targeted customer surveys, so that we can better estimate future inventory requirements.
Our broad assortment gives us an advantage over mass general merchants who typically do not carry the leading national brands sold at Academy.
We have also continued to add private label brand products to our assortment of products, which we generally price lower than the national brand products of comparable quality that we also offer.
A shift in our sales mix in which we sell more units of our private label brand products and fewer units of the national brand products would generally have a positive impact on our gross margin but an adverse impact on our total net sales.
A shift in sales mix toward softgoods would generally have a positive impact on gross margin and a shift in sales mix towards hardgoods would generally have a negative impact on gross margin.
The expansion and enhancement of our omnichannel capabilities has resulted in increased sales in recent years.
We continue to invest in initiatives that will increase traffic to our stores and e-commerce platform, which includes our website and mobile app, and drive increased sales conversion.
These initiatives include investments in our new customer data platform and the development of strategies, which focus on customer segmentation with the intention of improving customer identification and increasing customer engagement.
Additionally , we continue to implemen t several innovative website features to enhance the customer online shopping experience, including a redesigned home page, additional BOPIS features, and enhanced shipping notifications.
Our improved e-commerce platform supports our stores with digital marketing and our BOPIS and ship-to-store programs.
These platforms allow us to connect further with our customers for marketing and product education and assists us in introducing customers to the Academy brand by reaching customers outside of our current store footprint.
During 2024, stores facilitated approximately 95% of our total sales, including ship-from-store, BOPIS and in-store retail sales.
We expect to continue to invest in expanding and enhancing our omnichannel capabilities, including our mobile app, optimizing the web site experience and upgrading our fulfillment capabilities, which will continue to require further investments by us.
Our growth strategy encompasses both deepening our presence in existing markets as well as entering new markets, leveraging enhanced brand awareness and operational efficiencies.
During the fiscal year 2024, we opened 16 new stores.
We plan to open 20 to 25 stores in fiscal year 2025 and we are continuously evaluating available locations that meet our size requirements and market criteria.
Our strategic real estate approach, including the 39 stores opened since fiscal year 2021, has positioned us effectively for continued expansion.
Our cost of goods sold includes the direct cost of merchandise and costs related to procurement, warehousing and distribution, which consist primarily of payroll and benefits, distribution center occupancy costs and freight and are generally variable in nature relative to our sales volume.
Our gross margin is also impacted by variables including duties, tariffs, commodity costs, freight costs, shrinkage (discussed below), inventory processing costs, and e-commerce shipping costs.
SG&A expenses as a percentage of sales increased from 23.3% in 2023 to 24.8% in 2024.
Management of SG&A expenses depends on our ability to balance a control of operating costs, such as store and corporate headcount, information technology infrastructure and marketing and advertising expenses, while efficiently and effectively servicing our customers.
The following table summarizes our pre-opening expense activity for the periods presented: Fiscal Year Ended February 1, 2025 February 3, 2024 January 28, 2023 Number of new stores opened 16 14 9 Pre-opening expenses (in millions) $ 13.9 $ 8.3 $ 5.5 During the fourth quarter of 2024, we closed on a sale-leaseback agreement involving a store property in Cypress, Texas.
We determined that the sale-leaseback transaction qualifies as a sale in accordance with ASC 842 (See Note 11).
In connection with the sale-leaseback transaction, we recognized a net gain of approximately $ 7.1 million in Selling, General, and Administrative expenses on the Consolidated Statements of Income.
Interest expense includes regular interest payable related to our Term Loan, Notes and ABL Facility (see Note 4 to the accompanying financial statements) and the amortization of our deferred loan costs and original issuance discounts associated with the acquisition of the debt.
In 2022 and 2023, we utilized cash on hand to voluntarily prepay $100 million of outstanding borrowings on our Term Loan.
However, this prepayment in principal on our Term Loan was largely offset by increases made by the Federal Reserve to the federal funds benchmark rate during 2022 and 2023, resulting in a decrease in interest expense in 2024 compared to 2023.

and 242 more.

Sentence-level comparison of Item 1A in the two most recent 10-Ks (FY2025 ↗, FY2026 ↗). A reworded sentence counts as one dropped and one added, so heavy edits read as low “kept”. Headings and page furniture are stripped; nothing is summarised by a model.

Watch ASO. Know when insiders buy.

One email the day a filing lands. Free.