Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman, Brian Sozzi, and Myles Udland speak with Academy Sports + Outdoors CEO, President, and Chairman, Ken Hicks, about the company’s latest earnings report, outlook, and much more.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Well shares of Academy Sports is rising for the second straight day after that company's earnings came out and beat estimates. It saw record quarterly sales as well in the first quarter, sales up 39%.

And we want to bring in the CEO of Academy Sports and Outdoors right now. That is Ken Hicks. Ken, it's good to see you. So talk to us--

KEN HICKS: Good to see you.

JULIE HYMAN: Talk to us about what you're seeing sell right now, whether this is a reflection of reopening trade, what other trends are driving some of the sales that you're seeing? And what things are particularly popular?

KEN HICKS: Well, we were open throughout the pandemic. And Texas and our markets have been open. So we've seen people come in and pick up new hobbies and interests like fishing, camping, hiking. And so that has continued. That's one of the things that's been very good is that people picked up a new hobby. And they're doing more of it.

We also are seeing people going back to some of the things like team sports. Baseball was very good this year, so is biking. And we're seeing people get back into outdoor cooking as they begin to get together and gather.

So it's people picking up new interests and people going back, doing old things. And some of the things that are selling well are tents. We're going through tents like crazy because people are going out camping this year as a way to stay safe but also have some fun outdoors.

BRIAN SOZZI: Ken, Brian here. You mentioned on the earnings call this week, you are about $100 million short in terms of inventory relative to where you would like to be. Where you seeing some of those shortages? And what's causing it?

KEN HICKS: Well, part of it is the supply chain. It's extremely stressed. Deliveries are slow. And production in some areas, is not all the way back to where it was.

So some of the outdoor areas, we've got some inventory issues. Bicycles is a place where we don't have as much stock as we'd like and some of the fishing, some of the team sports areas. But overall, our inventory is what I'd call acceptable. It's just not where we would like it to be for being in stock so we can serve every customer and we've got the presentation we'd like.

MYLES UDLAND: And Ken, thinking about those inventory-type challenges that you guys have had, how much have you learned about the business, maybe, in terms of levels that might be better going forward? Or are you all hoping to maybe get through this unprecedented couple-of-year period and have the stores, the assortment, and the mix kind of look like it did pre-pandemic?