Academy Sports + Outdoors vs Sally Beauty
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KIRA’s take AI analyst
I put Academy Sports + Outdoors and Sally Beauty side by side, using each one’s latest annual report. Here is what stands out:
- Academy Sports + Outdoors is the larger business, with $6.1B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $3.7B for Sally Beauty, about 1.6 times as much.
- Academy Sports + Outdoors grew revenue faster (2.0%, against −0.4%).
- Sally Beauty turned more of its sales into free cash flow (4.7% FCF margin, against 3.7%).
- Academy Sports + Outdoors earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (17.6%, against 16.1%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Academy Sports + Outdoors’s earnings: a P/E of 10.0x against 9.1x for Sally Beauty.
Who comes out ahead
Of the 11 measures where higher (or lower) is clearly better, how many each company leads.
Academy Sports + Outdoors
ASO
6/11
Revenue growth5-year growthNet marginReturn on capitalNet debt / EBITDAShare count change
Sally Beauty
SBH
5/11
Gross marginOperating marginFCF marginReturn on equityPiotroski F-score
Side by side
Best in the row
| Latest fiscal year | ASO FY25 | SBH FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $3.8B | $1.7B |
| Revenue | $6.1B | $3.7B |
| Free cash flow | $222M | $173M |
| Net income | $377M | $196M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 2.0% | −0.4% |
| 5-year growth | 1.3% | 1.0% |
| Share count change | −6.9% | −2.9% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 34.8% | 51.6% |
| Operating margin | 8.5% | 8.9% |
| Net margin | 6.2% | 5.3% |
| FCF margin | 3.7% | 4.7% |
| Return on capital | 17.6% | 16.1% |
| Return on equity | 18.1% | 27.5% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $154M | $726M |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.2x | 1.7x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $234M | $54.0M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 10.0x | 9.1x |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 8 |
Ten years
Revenue
Operating margin
Free cash flow
Return on capital
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.