Shares of Academy Sports & Outdoors Inc. rallied 5.4% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer’s better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter profit, net sales and same-store sales offset a reduced full-year outlook to reflect “macroeconomic challenges.” Net income for the quarter to April 30 fell to $149.8 million, or $1.69 a share, from $177.8 million, or $1.84 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $1.73 was well above the FactSet consensus of $1.45. Net sales declined 7.1% to $1.47 billion, just above the FactSet consensus of $1.45 billion, as the same-store sales drop of 7.5% beat expectations of a 9.3% decline. Gross margin contracted to 35.5% from 35.7% as increased merchandise margin and a decrease in freight costs were offset by a rise in inventory and ecommerce shipping costs. For fiscal 2022, the company revised lower its guidance ranges for adjusted EPS to $6.55 to $7.25 from $6.70 to $7.25, for sales to $6.43 billion to $6.63 billion from $6.56 billion to $6.77 billion and for same-store sales to down 6% to down 3% from down 4% to down 1%. The stock has shot up 18.8% over the past three months through Monday while the S&P 500 has slipped 1.9%.
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