Academy Sports + Outdoors ($ASO): Let the Fun Begin

In a Nutshell

• Academy Sports + Outdoors (ASO) is a sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer.

• With a short-term perspective, this is an out of favor sector: consumer discretionary, post-pandemic hangover, supply chain challenges, disintermediation risk, macro-economic headwinds…

• Broadening and extending the perspective, this is a thriving company, profitable and generating strong FCF; outperforming its peers; with a robust balance sheet; building a resilient business model; within a growing and rebaselined sector; and with a seasoned new management at the helm.

• Ah, and trading at 4x EV/2022E EBIT.

Introduction

Academy Sports + Outdoors (ASO) is a sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer and I am pretty conscious that nowadays this retail category may be rather out of favor. From a general perspective, there are macro headwinds (coupled with a potential post-pandemic hangover) that make this consumer discretionary sub-sector to be especially risky. Besides there are also other sec…