Academy Sports + Outdoors reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on September 9 for the thirteen weeks ended August 1. Net sales were $1,647.3 million, up 3.0%, while comparable sales declined 0.4%. Diluted GAAP EPS was $2.17 and adjusted diluted EPS was $2.31. The company disclosed a $0.06 net tariff-refund impact to EPS, including reinvestments.
Academy affirmed its $6,230 million to $6,355 million fiscal sales range and $390 million to $415 million GAAP net-income range. It raised both ends of its GAAP and adjusted EPS ranges by $0.10. The diluted weighted-average share assumption moved from 66 million to 64.5 million. These are company disclosures, not a consensus comparison or a forecast of the stock or its options.
Why It Matters For Options Traders
An earnings release changes the information available about a company and may change the uncertainty that traders attach to future prices. Those are related but separate questions. A stronger reported number does not mechanically translate into a profitable call. The contract’s strike, expiration, entry premium, liquidity and quote time all matter.
The Options Industry Council explains that an option premium has intrinsic value and time value. It identifies the underlying price, strike, time to expiration, implied volatility, dividends and interest rates as premium factors. Around a scheduled report, implied volatility can reflect the possibility of a large move. Once the event passes, that uncertainty can change even if the share price moves in the direction a trader expected.
OptionsTrading.Zone’s guide to how earnings affect options prices and implied volatility provides broader background. The useful discipline is to separate the issuer’s accounting from the option’s payoff. First record what the company actually reported. Then define the exact market observation and contract being evaluated.
A hypothetical accounting example
Consider a fictional retailer called ExampleCo. It reports sales growth of 4%, but stores open for more than a year show a 1% decline. The two numbers answer different questions. Total sales include the contribution from recently opened locations; comparable sales attempt to hold the store base more constant. A reader who calls the report simply “4% growth” loses information about the existing-store trend. A reader who calls it simply “a decline” ignores expansion.
Now imagine ExampleCo reports GAAP EPS of $2.00 and adjusted EPS of $2.20. The adjustment could reflect an item management excludes under its non-GAAP policy. A trader studying the release should preserve both figures and read the reconciliation. Treating the adjusted number as if it were GAAP earnings can create a false impression of the year-over-year change. A hypothetical analyst might compare each measure with its matching estimate, but should not combine a GAAP actual with an adjusted estimate.
The same care applies to a one-time benefit. Assume ExampleCo receives a $0.05 per-share tax settlement and says it reinvested part of the benefit in lower prices. The $0.05 may explain part of the quarter’s earnings, but it does not describe recurring demand. The reinvestment may also change later gross margin or customer traffic. A clean review labels the benefit, the reinvestment and the recurring operating result separately.
Share count and per-share guidance
Per-share figures depend on more than total earnings. In a hypothetical case, ExampleCo leaves its net-income range unchanged but lowers its diluted share assumption after repurchases. Its EPS range could rise even though the net-income range did not. That arithmetic is not automatically good or bad for an investor; it is a reason to inspect the bridge from net income to per-share results.
The same principle applies to an options discussion. Suppose a trader says an EPS guide was raised and therefore a call should gain value. The statement skips at least two links: whether the market expected a larger change and how the share price and volatility were already priced. A per-share improvement can be real while the option still loses value if the move is smaller than the premium implied by the contract.
A hypothetical option-price example
Assume a fictional stock trades at $50 before its report. A one-week $52 call has a $1.20 mid-price, with a $1.10 bid and $1.30 ask. The quote is not a promise that the contract can be bought at the midpoint. It is a snapshot whose usefulness depends on the spread, size and time.
After the report, assume the stock trades at $52.70, but the same call is quoted at $0.90 bid and $1.05 ask. The stock rose, yet a buyer who paid $1.20 could still face a mark below the entry price. The event premium may have declined, the remaining time may be shorter, and the new quote may have different liquidity. This is a hypothetical illustration and contains no ASO market data.
How to evaluate an event window
Choose the event timestamp first. A comparison might use the last regular-session quote before a morning release and the first regular-session quote after it. Another might use closing prices on two specified dates. Both can be valid, but they answer different questions. Mixing a pre-release close with an intraday high exaggerates the apparent move and makes the result hard to reproduce.
Record the ticker, option type, strike, expiration, bid, ask, midpoint convention, quote timestamp and underlying price. Record whether the contract was in, at or out of the money. Include commissions and other stated costs when calculating a return. If only last trades are available, describe that limitation because a last trade can be stale.
What to monitor after the release
For the company, later filings can show whether reported demand, margins, inventory and cash generation persist. For the option, later quotes can show how time value and volatility evolved. These are different evidence streams.
Common misunderstandings and caveats
Total sales and comparable sales are different measures. GAAP EPS and adjusted EPS are different measures. Net income and diluted EPS are related but not interchangeable, especially when share-count assumptions change. A one-time benefit is not automatically recurring earnings, and unchanged sales guidance does not mean every operating assumption is unchanged.
An earnings release does not reveal whether an option was cheap or expensive before the event. That requires historical quotes, a defined contract and a comparison framework. A favorable business update does not guarantee a favorable option return. Spreads, expiration, assignment, liquidity and total loss risk remain relevant.
Options trading involves risk and is not suitable for all investors.
This is not financial advice. This educational article makes no recommendation to buy or sell ASO shares or any options contract, and it provides no price target or trading strategy.
Sources
Academy Sports + Outdoors, September 9, 2026, Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Results. Primary source for the reported quarter, EPS, tariff-refund disclosure and fiscal guidance.
https://investors.academy.com/news-releases/news-release-details/academy-sports-outdoors-reports-second-quarter-fiscal-2026
Academy Sports + Outdoors, Quarterly Results. Investor-relations index for company releases and filings.
https://investors.academy.com/financials-filings/quarterly-results
Options Industry Council, Options Pricing. Primary educational source for intrinsic value, time value and premium factors.
https://www.optionseducation.org/optionsoverview/options-pricing
Options Clearing Corporation, Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options.
https://www.theocc.com/company-information/documents-and-archives/options-disclosure-document
