Key Takeaways
- Academy sold $1.65 billion worth of goods in the three months ending August 1, 2026, 3.0% more than the same period last year.
- Sales at stores open more than a year slipped 0.4%, meaning the growth came from new stores and online orders, not busier existing stores.
- Profit per share rose 17.3% to $2.17, and the company now expects to earn more for the full year than it predicted in June.
- Academy runs 327 stores in 21 states and plans to open 11 more by the end of October.
FULL REPORT HERE
Academy Sports and Outdoors, the Texas-based sporting goods chain, brought in $1.647 billion in sales during its second quarter, the three months ending August 1, 2026. That is 3.0% more than the $1.600 billion it sold in the same stretch of 2025, according to the company’s September 9 release. Profit per share, the amount of profit earned for each share of company stock, rose 17.3% to $2.17. The company also raised its profit forecast for the full year. In short, the Academy Sports Q2 2026 results show a retailer making more money even though its existing stores are seeing slightly fewer sales.
Where the Extra Sales Came From
Retailers track a number called comparable sales, which measures how stores that have been open more than a year are doing, along with online sales. It strips out the boost from opening new locations. On that measure, Academy was down 0.4% for the quarter, per the release. A year ago that figure was up 0.2%.
So the overall 3.0% gain came from two other places. Online sales grew 12.8%, and the stores Academy opened over the past year are selling more than they did in their first months, the company reported. Through the first half of the year, total sales reached $3.089 billion, up 4.7%.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Lawrence said consumer spending “remains pressured, particularly among lower-income households,” and that Academy is concentrating on “the key events and categories that matter most to our customers.” Academy’s shelves focus on outdoor gear, apparel, sports and recreation equipment, and footwear, per its company description, which is much of what youth sports families buy each season.
How Did Profit Grow 17% When Sales Grew Only 3%?
The short answer is that Academy kept more of each dollar it took in. For every $100 in sales, the company kept $40.40 after paying for the products it sold, up from $36.00 a year earlier, according to its income statement. That gap, known as gross margin, is where the extra profit came from. Store and office costs stayed roughly steady at about $25.50 per $100 in sales.
Part of the improvement came from tariffs, the taxes charged on imported goods. Academy received tariff refunds during the quarter, and the company said the net effect added $0.06 to profit per share after it put some of that money back into lower prices. Lawrence said Academy is “reinvesting tariff-related benefits into value, expanding compelling new brands and categories.”
Total profit rose 10.0% to $137.9 million, per the release. Profit per share grew faster than total profit because Academy has been buying back its own stock, which leaves fewer shares to divide the profit among. The company spent $182.1 million on buybacks in the first half of the year, up from $99.9 million a year earlier, and its share count fell to 63.6 million from 67.7 million.
New Stores in Pennsylvania and Tennessee
Academy opened three stores during the quarter, in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, bringing its total to 327 locations, per the release. It opened 24 stores in all of last year and plans 11 more in the third quarter, which ends around the start of November, with the rest of this year’s openings scheduled for the holiday quarter.
The company is also carrying less merchandise per store. Total inventory was $1.657 billion, up 4.4% because of the added locations, but each store held 5.6% fewer items and 2.3% fewer dollars of stock than a year ago, the company reported.
What Academy Now Expects for the Full Year
Academy left its full-year sales forecast alone at $6.23 billion to $6.355 billion, according to the updated outlook. What changed is how much of that it expects to keep. The company now expects profit per share of $6.05 to $6.45, up from the $5.95 to $6.35 range it gave in June. It also raised its forecast for free cash flow, the cash left over after running the business and building stores, to $300 million to $350 million from $250 million to $300 million.
“We delivered double digit EPS growth, produced strong free cash flow and continued returning capital to shareholders through both share repurchases and dividends,” said Carl Ford, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Shareholders will receive a dividend of $0.15 per share on October 14, 2026.
The 11 openings planned for the third quarter are more than double the five stores Academy has added so far this year, and they are the next thing to watch before the company reports again.
Source: Academy Sports + Outdoors, September 9, 2026, https://investors.academy.com/news-releases/news-release-details/academy-sports-outdoors-reports-second-quarter-fiscal-2026
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American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
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Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
