Academy Sports Reports Record Quarter, Year

Academy Sports + Outdoors reported sales of $6.77 billion in 2021, a 19.1% year-over-year increase and a 40.2% jump from 2019, marking the company’s second consecutive record year. 

The sporting goods retailer’s fourth-quarter net sales jumped 13.2% year-over-year to a quarterly record of $1.8 billion, up 32% from 2019. It marked the 10th consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales.

The quarter’s pre-tax income rose 55% year-over-year to $188.4 million, with full-year pre-tax income increasing 153.5% to $859.5 million.

• For the full year, all four of the company’s merchandise divisions and geographic regions posted double-digit sales growth.
• Fourth-quarter e-commerce sales jumped 22.7% year-over-year and 97.2% from 2019. For the full year, e-commerce sales increased 6.2% from 2020 and 153.1% from 2019.

Academy ended its fiscal year with $1.2 billion in inventory, up 18.4% compared to fiscal 2020. It expects 2022 net sales to reach between $6.56 billion and $6.77 billion, with net income landing between $590 million and $640 million.

Big Year For Gear

Academy Sports isn’t the only sporting goods retailer to record a record quarter — or year. Earlier this month, Dick’s Sporting Goods reported a record $3.35 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, up 7% from 2020 and 28.5% from 2019. Its full-year revenue reached a record of $12.29 billion, a 28.3% increase from 2020.