Many of the big winners included in the S&P 500 index from 2020 are companies firmly rooted in the technology sector. The obvious big winner is Tesla, whose share price increased by 7.5 times for a variety of reasons. While the increase in Tesla stocks (arguably) does not have a direct connection to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a look at many of the other companies in this list indicates a clear link. Online retailers such as Amazon and Etsy saw large increases in their stock price, along with companies who provide crucial parts of infrastructure necessary for online shopping such as PayPal and FedEx. Given the closure of brick and mortar stores in many parts of the world due to the pandemic, the causation here is evident. Similarly, computer chip manufactures NVIDIA and AMD saw returns of 100 percent or more, likely due both to the shift to remote working necessitated by the pandemic, as well as the global increase in playing video games resulting from the unavailability of many other activities.

The main stock market index of United States, the US500, rose to 6271 points on July 14, 2025, gaining 0.19% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 3.94% and is up 11.36% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from United States. United States Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

The latest closing stock price for Tesla as of June 17, 2025 is 316.39. An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Tesla stock at the IPO in 2010 would have $197,650 today, roughly 198 times their original investment - a 42.30% compound annual growth rate over 15 years. The all-time high Tesla stock closing price was 479.86 on December 17, 2024. The Tesla 52-week high stock price is 488.54, which is 54.4% above the current share price. The Tesla 52-week low stock price is 179.66, which is 43.2% below the current share price. The average Tesla stock price for the last 52 weeks is 291.40. For more information on how our historical price data is adjusted see the Stock Price Adjustment Guide.

Stocks of video game retailer GameStop exploded in January 2021, effectively doubling in value on a daily basis. At the close of trading on January 27, GameStop Corporation's stock price reaching 86.88 U.S. dollars per share - or +134 percent compared to the day before. On December 30, 2020, the price was valued at 4.82 U.S. dollars per share. The cause of this dramatic increase is a concerted effort via social media to raise the value of the company's stock, intended to negatively affect professional investors planning to ‘short sell’ GameStop shares. As professional investors started moving away from GameStop the stock price began to fall, stabilizing at around 11-13 U.S. dollars in mid-February. However, stock prices unexpectedly doubled again on February 24, and continued to rise, reaching 66.25 U.S. dollars at the close of trade on March 10. The reasons for this second increase are not fully clear. At the close of trade on January 29, 2025, GameStop shares were trading at nearly 27.5 U.S. dollars. Who are GameStop? GameStop are a retailer of video games and associated merchandise headquartered in a suburbs of Dallas, Texas, but with stores throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. As of February 2020 the group maintained just over 5,500 stores, variously under the GameStop, EB Games, ThinkGeek, and Micromania-Zing brands. The company's main revenue source in 2020 was hardware and accessories - a change from 2019, when software sales were the main source of revenue. While the company saw success in the decade up to 2016 (owing to the constant growth of the video game industry), GameStop experienced declining sales since because consumers increasingly purchased video games digitally. It is this continual decline, combined with the effect of the global coronavirus pandemic on traditional retail outlets, that led many institutional investors to see GameStop as a good opportunity for short selling. What is short selling? Short selling is where an investor effectively bets on a the price of a financial asset falling. To do this, an investor borrows shares (or some other asset) via an agreement that the same number of shares be returned at a future date. They can then sell the borrowed shares, and purchase the same number back once the price has fallen to make a profit. Obviously, this strategy only works when the share price does fall – otherwise the borrowed stocks need to be repurchased at a higher price, causing a loss. In the case of GameStop, a deliberate campaign was arranged via social media (particularly Reddit) for individuals to purchase GameStop shares, thus driving the price higher. As a result, some estimates place the loss to institutional investors in January 2021 alone at around 20 billion U.S. dollars. However, once many of these investors had 'closed out' their position by returning the shares they borrowed, demand for GameStop stock fell, leading to the price reduction seen early in early February. A similar dynamic was seen at the same time with the share price of U.S. cinema operator AMC.

The latest closing stock price for Microsoft as of June 18, 2025 is 480.24. An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Microsoft stock at the IPO in 1986 would have $8,056,718 today, roughly 8,057 times their original investment - a 25.94% compound annual growth rate over 39 years. The all-time high Microsoft stock closing price was 480.24 on June 18, 2025. The Microsoft 52-week high stock price is 481.00, which is 0.2% above the current share price. The Microsoft 52-week low stock price is 344.79, which is 28.2% below the current share price. The average Microsoft stock price for the last 52 weeks is 422.77. For more information on how our historical price data is adjusted see the Stock Price Adjustment Guide.

The value of the DJIA index amounted to ********* at the end of March 2025, up from ********* at the end of March 2020. Global panic about the coronavirus epidemic caused the drop in March 2020, which was the worst drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average index – additional information The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is a price-weighted average of 30 of the largest American publicly traded companies on New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and includes companies like Goldman Sachs, IBM and Walt Disney. This index is considered to be a barometer of the state of the American economy. DJIA index was created in 1986 by Charles Dow. Along with the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices, it is amongst the most well-known and used stock indexes in the world. The year that the 2018 financial crisis unfolded was one of the worst years of the Dow. It was also in 2008 that some of the largest ever recorded losses of the Dow Jones Index based on single-day points were registered. On September 29, 2008, for instance, the Dow had a loss of ****** points, one of the largest single-day losses of all times. The best years in the history of the index still are 1915, when the index value increased by ***** percent in one year, and 1933, year when the index registered a growth of ***** percent.

The latest closing stock price for Best Buy as of June 18, 2025 is 67.76. An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Best Buy stock at the IPO in 1985 would have $716,797 today, roughly 717 times their original investment - a 17.87% compound annual growth rate over 40 years. The all-time high Best Buy stock closing price was 116.55 on November 22, 2021. The Best Buy 52-week high stock price is 103.71, which is 53.1% above the current share price. The Best Buy 52-week low stock price is 54.99, which is 18.8% below the current share price. The average Best Buy stock price for the last 52 weeks is 83.55. For more information on how our historical price data is adjusted see the Stock Price Adjustment Guide.

The latest closing stock price for Alphabet as of June 18, 2025 is 173.86. An investor who bought $1,000 worth of Alphabet stock at the IPO in 2004 would have $68,661 today, roughly 69 times their original investment - a 22.39% compound annual growth rate over 21 years. The all-time high Alphabet stock closing price was 205.89 on February 04, 2025. The Alphabet 52-week high stock price is 207.05, which is 19.1% above the current share price. The Alphabet 52-week low stock price is 140.53, which is 19.2% below the current share price. The average Alphabet stock price for the last 52 weeks is 172.15. For more information on how our historical price data is adjusted see the Stock Price Adjustment Guide.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index dropped around ***** points in the four weeks from February 12 to March 11, 2020, but has since recovered and peaked at ********* points as of November 24, 2024. In February 2020 - just prior to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the DJIA index stood at a little over ****** points. U.S. markets suffer as virus spreads The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a turbulent period for stock markets – the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also recorded dramatic drops. At the start of February, some analysts remained optimistic that the outbreak would ease. However, the increased spread of the virus started to hit investor confidence, prompting a record plunge in the stock markets. The Dow dropped by more than ***** points in the week from February 21 to February 28, which was a fall of **** percent – its worst percentage loss in a week since October 2008. Stock markets offer valuable economic insights The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock market index that monitors the share prices of the 30 largest companies in the United States. By studying the performance of the listed companies, analysts can gauge the strength of the domestic economy. If investors are confident in a company’s future, they will buy its stocks. The uncertainty of the coronavirus sparked fears of an economic crisis, and many traders decided that investment during the pandemic was too risky.

Context

According to Investopedia:

FAANG is an acronym referring to the stocks of the five most popular and best-performing American technology companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google). In addition to being widely known among consumers, the five FAANG stocks are among the largest companies in the world, with a combined market capitalization of over $4.1 trillion as of January 2020. Some have raised concerns that the FAANG stocks may be in the midst of a bubble, whereas others argue that their growth is justified by the stellar financial and operational performance they have shown in recent years.

Regardless of the myriad of accolades, comments, and even controversies surrounding the FAANG stocks, they are nevertheless a data science/mining treasure and the bellwether of the NASDAQ index, if not the entire US technology sector.

This Kaggle dataset contains over 20 years of daily historical data for the five FAANG constituents, as retrieved from this free stock API. It is a public-domain dataset that gives the data science practitioners (a.k.a., you!) the full flexibility to derive second-order insights and investment heuristics from it.

Content

Over 20 years of daily historical data (2000-01-01 to 2020-10-01) for the five FAANG stocks: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet/Google. For completeness, both raw and adjusted prices are included, along with historical split events and dividend payouts (check out here for how stock market API providers perform price adjustments).

Acknowledgements

Data source: https://www.alphavantage.co/

In the first quarter of 2020, global stock indices posted substantial losses that were triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19. The period from March 6 to 18 was particularly dramatic, with several stock indices losing more than ** percent of their value. Worldwide panic hits markets From the United States to the United Kingdom, stock market indices suffered steep falls as the coronavirus pandemic created economic uncertainty. The Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are two indices that track company performance in the United States, and both lost value as lockdowns were introduced in the country. European markets also recorded significant slumps, which triggered panic selling among investors. The FTSE 100 – the leading share index of companies in the UK – plunged by as much as ** percent in the opening weeks of March 2020. Is it time to invest in tech stocks? The S&P 500 is regarded as the best representation of the U.S. economy because it includes more companies from the leading industries. However, helped in no small part by its focus on tech companies, the Nasdaq 100 has risen in popularity and seen remarkable growth in recent years. Global demand for digital technologies has increased further due to the coronavirus, with remote working and online shopping becoming part of the new normal. As a result, more investors are likely to switch to the tech stocks listed on the Nasdaq 100.

The price of Tesla shares traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange remained rather stable between July 2010 and January 2020. With the beginning of 2020, the price of Tesla share increased dramatically and stood at ****** U.S. dollars per share in November 2021. Since then, the price of Tesla share fluctuated significantly and reached its peak at ****** U.S. dollars per share in December 2024, before falling dramatically in February 2025. Why did Tesla's stock value go up in 2020? Despite the effects of the pandemic, Tesla share prices experienced a massive increase in 2020. Tesla kept increasing its output levels throughout the year, except for the second quarter, and released its new vehicle Tesla Model Y. Additionally, when the company was added to the S&P 500 index in August 2020, it instilled further trust in investors. In 2020, Tesla was the top-performing stock on the S&P 500 index, and two years later, in 2024, it ranked among the ten largest companies on the index by market capitalization. Steady growth in the last decade Founded in 2003, Tesla primarily focuses on designing and producing electric vehicles, as well as energy generation and storage systems. Since then, Tesla's revenue has steadily increased, reaching nearly ** million U.S. dollars in 2024. Most of the revenue came from automotive sales in 2024. Tesla's first electric car, the Roadster, was sold between 2008 and 2012. Currently, the company offers four primary electric vehicles: Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X.

View data of the S&P 500, an index of the stocks of 500 leading companies in the US economy, which provides a gauge of the U.S. equity market.

Stock market return (%, year-on-year) in United States was reported at 32.65 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Stock market return (%, year-on-year) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

Carbon dioxide uptake by terrestrial ecosystems is critical for moderating climate change but the processes involved are challenging to observe, quantify and model. To provide an independent, ground-based assessment of the contribution of forests to terrestrial uptake, we synthesized the best available in situ forest data from boreal, temperate and tropical biomes spanning three decades. This data publication includes regional and country-level estimates of forest areas, carbon stocks and carbon sinks from 1990 to 2020. Data are based on ground measurements of trees from different forests worldwide and specifically include forest areas, forest carbon stocks, forest carbon stock changes of all global forest biomes (including components of living biomass, deadwood, litter, soil and harvested wood product) and formulas used for synthesizing and calculating the data which can be used for reproducing analysis results and graphics. This data publication also provides raw forest inventory data for Sweden, Norway and Finland from 1960 to 2020 which includes total area, increment, growing stock, harvested, harvested residues, and total decrement for all forest land and productive forest lands. Information for all data sources is also included.The purpose of this study was to estimate global forest carbon stocks and sink, while providing critical information for global efforts achieving carbon neutrality.For more information about this study, data, and analysis results, see Pan et al. (2024).

China's main stock market index, the SHANGHAI, fell to 3505 points on July 15, 2025, losing 0.42% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 3.43% and is up 17.76% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from China. China Shanghai Composite Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.

Indexes included in the Russell U.S. Index Series Russell 3000®: The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies representing approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market. Russell 1000®: The Russell 1000 Index measures the performance of the large-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index and includes approximately 1,000 of the largest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. The Russell 1000 represents approximately 91% of the U.S. market. Russell 2000®: The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Russell 2000 Index is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index representing approximately 9% of the total market capitalization of that index. It includes approximately 2,000 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. Index Inception Dates Russell 1000® Index (1/1979) Russell 1000® Growth Index (1/1979) Russell 1000® Value Index (1/1979) Russell 2000® Index (1/1979) Russell 2000® Growth Index (1/1979) Russell 2000® Value Index (1/1979) Russell 2500™ Index (4/2003) Russell 2500™ Growth Index (4/2003) Russell 2500™ Value Index (4/2003) Russell 3000® Index (1/1979) Russell 3000® Growth Index (1/1979) Russell 3000® Value Index (1/1979) Russell Midcap® Index (1/1986) Russell Midcap® Growth Index (1/1987) Russell Midcap® Value Index (1/1987) Russell Small Cap Completeness Index (4/2003) Russell Small Cap Completeness Growth Index (4/2003) Russell Small Cap Completeness Value Index (4/2003) Russell Top 200® Index (7/1996) Russell Top 200® Growth Index (7/2001) Russell Top 200® Value Index (7/2001) Monthly Files included in the Russell U.S. Index Series Monthly Closing Files – RGS These holdings files reflect the official closing positions for all constituents of the 21 U.S. Russell Indexes at month-end back to December 1986 and at quarter-end from September 1986 back to December 1978. Security level information such as returns, market values, sector and industry classifications, and security weights are included in the file. Files are fixed-width text files and have a naming convention of H_yyyymmdd_RGS.txt. Monthly Closing Files – ICB These holdings files reflect the official closing positions for all constituents of the 21 U.S. Russell Indexes at month-end back to January 2010. Security level information such as returns, market values, sector and industry classifications, and security weights are included in the file. Files are comma delimited text files and have a naming convention of H_yyyymmdd.csv. Monthly Contribution to Return by RGS Files These files provide contribution to return using RGS as of the end of the month for each of the 21 U.S. Russell Indexes back to August 2008. Files are tab delimited text files and have a naming convention of CTR_MONTHLY_RGS_yyyymmdd.txt.. Monthly Contribution to Return by ICB Files These files provide contribution to return using ICB as of the end of the month for each of the 21 U.S. Russell Indexes back to August 2020. Files are comma delimited text files and have a naming convention of CTR_MONTHLY_yyyymmdd.csv. Monthly RGS Sector Weights Files These files provide monthly Russell Global Sector (RGS) weights for all 21 US Indexes at month-end back to November 2009. Files are comma delimited text files and have a naming convention of SWH_RGS_ALL_yyyymmdd.txt. Monthly ICB Sector Weights Files These files provide monthly Industrial Classification Benchmark (ICB) weights for all 21 US Indexes at month-end back to March 2020. Files are comma delimited text files and have a naming convention of SWH_ALL_yyyymmdd.csv. Note: In August 2020 FTSE Russell transitioned to ICB classification from the RGS classification. All data from September, 2020 is only available using ICB Classification. Data is current to 2024.

This is not going to be an article or Op-Ed about Michael Jordan. Since 2009 we've been in the longest bull-market in history, that's 11 years and counting. However a few metrics like the stock market P/E, the call to put ratio and of course the Shiller P/E suggest a great crash is coming in-between the levels of 1929 and the dot.com bubble. Mean reversion historically is inevitable and the Fed's printing money experiment could end in disaster for the stock market in late 2021 or 2022. You can read Jeremy Grantham's Last Dance article here. You are likely well aware of Michael Burry's predicament as well. It's easier for you just to skim through two related videos on this topic of a stock market crash. Michael Burry's Warning see this YouTube. Jeremy Grantham's Warning See this YouTube. Typically when there is a major event in the world, there is a crash and then a bear market and a recovery that takes many many months. In March, 2020 that's not what we saw since the Fed did some astonishing things that means a liquidity sloth and the risk of a major inflation event. The pandemic represented the quickest decline of at least 30% in the history of the benchmark S&P 500, but the recovery was not correlated to anything but Fed intervention. Since the pandemic clearly isn't disappearing and many sectors such as travel, business travel, tourism and supply chain disruptions appear significantly disrupted - the so-called economic recovery isn't so great. And there's this little problem at the heart of global capitalism today, the stock market just keeps going up. Crashes and corrections typically occur frequently in a normal market. But the Fed liquidity and irresponsible printing of money is creating a scenario where normal behavior isn't occurring on the markets. According to data provided by market analytics firm Yardeni Research, the benchmark index has undergone 38 declines of at least 10% since the beginning of 1950. Since March, 2020 we've barely seen a down month. September, 2020 was flat-ish. The S&P 500 has more than doubled since those lows. Look at the angle of the curve: The S&P 500 was 735 at the low in 2009, so in this bull market alone it has gone up 6x in valuation. That's not a normal cycle and it could mean we are due for an epic correction. I have to agree with the analysts who claim that the long, long bull market since 2009 has finally matured into a fully-fledged epic bubble. There is a complacency, buy-the dip frenzy and general meme environment to what BigTech can do in such an environment. The weight of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Nvidia and Tesla together in the S&P and Nasdaq is approach a ridiculous weighting. When these stocks are seen both as growth, value and companies with unbeatable moats the entire dynamics of the stock market begin to break down. Check out FANG during the pandemic. BigTech is Seen as Bullet-Proof me valuations and a hysterical speculative behavior leads to even higher highs, even as 2020 offered many younger people an on-ramp into investing for the first time. Some analysts at JP Morgan are even saying that until retail investors stop charging into stocks, markets probably don’t have too much to worry about. Hedge funds with payment for order flows can predict exactly how these retail investors are behaving and monetize them. PFOF might even have to be banned by the SEC. The risk-on market theoretically just keeps going up until the Fed raises interest rates, which could be in 2023! For some context, we're more than 1.4 years removed from the bear-market bottom of the coronavirus crash and haven't had even a 5% correction in nine months. This is the most over-priced the market has likely ever been. At the night of the dot-com bubble the S&P 500 was only 1,400. Today it is 4,500, not so many years after. Clearly something is not quite right if you look at history and the P/E ratios. A market pumped with liquidity produces higher earnings with historically low interest rates, it's an environment where dangerous things can occur. In late 1997, as the S&P 500 passed its previous 1929 peak of 21x earnings, that seemed like a lot, but nothing compared to today. For some context, the S&P 500 Shiller P/E closed last week at 38.58, which is nearly a two-decade high. It's also well over double the average Shiller P/E of 16.84, dating back 151 years. So the stock market is likely around 2x over-valued. Try to think rationally about what this means for valuations today and your favorite stock prices, what should they be in historical terms? The S&P 500 is up 31% in the past year. It will likely hit 5,000 before a correction given the amount of added liquidity to the system and the QE the Fed is using that's like a huge abuse of MMT, or Modern Monetary Theory. This has also lent to bubbles in the housing market, crypto and even commodities like Gold with long-term global GDP meeting many headwinds in the years ahead due to a demographic shift of an ageing population and significant technological automation. So if you think that stocks or equities or ETFs are the best place to put your money in 2022, you might want to think again. The crash of the OTC and small-cap market since February 2021 has been quite an indication of what a correction looks like. According to the Motley Fool what happens after major downturns in the market historically speaking? In each of the previous four instances that the S&P 500's Shiller P/E shot above and sustained 30, the index lost anywhere from 20% to 89% of its value. So what's what we too are due for, reversion to the mean will be realistically brutal after the Fed's hyper-extreme intervention has run its course. Of course what the Fed stimulus has really done is simply allowed the 1% to get a whole lot richer to the point of wealth inequality spiraling out of control in the decades ahead leading us likely to a dystopia in an unfair and unequal version of BigTech capitalism. This has also led to a trend of short squeeze to these tech stocks, as shown in recent years' data. Of course the Fed has to say that's its done all of these things for the people, employment numbers and the labor market. Women in the workplace have been set behind likely 15 years in social progress due to the pandemic and the Fed's response. While the 89% lost during the Great Depression would be virtually impossible today thanks to ongoing intervention from the Federal Reserve and Capitol Hill, a correction of 20% to 50% would be pretty fair and simply return the curve back to a normal trajectory as interest rates going back up eventually in the 2023 to 2025 period. It's very unlikely the market has taken Fed tapering into account (priced-in), since the euphoria of a can't miss market just keeps pushing the markets higher. But all good things must come to an end. Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released inflation data from July. This report showed that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 5.2% over the past 12 months. While the Fed and economists promise us this inflation is temporary, others are not so certain. As you print so much money, the money you have is worth less and certain goods cost more. Wage gains in some industries cannot be taken back, they are permanent - in the service sector like restaurants, hospitality and travel that have been among the hardest hit. The pandemic has led to a paradigm shift in the future of work, and that too is not temporary. The Great Resignation means white collar jobs with be more WFM than ever before, with a new software revolution, different transport and energy behaviors and so forth. Climate change alone could slow down global GDP in the 21st century. How can inflation be temporary when so many trends don't appear to be temporary? Sure the price of lumber or used-cars could be temporary, but a global chip shortage is exasperating the automobile sector. The stock market isn't even behaving like it cares about anything other than the Fed, and its $billions of dollars of buying bonds each month. Some central banks will start to taper about December, 2021 (like the European). However Delta could further mutate into a variant that makes the first generation of vaccines less effective. Such a macro event could be enough to trigger the correction we've been speaking about. So stay safe, and keep your money safe. The Last Dance of the 2009 bull market could feel especially more painful because we've been spoiled for so long in the markets. We can barely remember what March, 2020 felt like. Some people sold their life savings simply due to scare tactics by the likes of Bill Ackman. His scare tactics on CNBC won him likely hundreds of millions as the stock market tanked. Hedge funds further gamed the Reddit and Gamestop movement, orchestrating them and leading the new retail investors into meme speculation and a whole bunch of other unsavory things like options trading at such scale we've never seen before. It's not just inflation and higher interest rates, it's how absurdly high valuations have become. Still correlation does not imply causation. Just because inflation has picked up, it doesn't guarantee that stocks will head lower. Nevertheless, weaker buying power associated with higher inflation can't be overlooked as a potential negative for the U.S. economy and equities. The current S&P500 10-year P/E Ratio is 38.7. This is 97% above the modern-era market average of 19.6, putting the current P/E 2.5 standard deviations above the modern-era average. This is just math, folks. History is saying the stock market is 2x its true value. So why and who would be full on the market or an asset class like crypto that is mostly speculative in nature to begin with? Study the following on a historical basis, and due your own due diligence as to the health of the markets: Debt-to-GDP ratio Call to put ratio

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. (Ticker: ASO) is a mid-cap Texas-based sporting goods and outdoor recreational retailer trading at a P/E of 7x, and an EV/EBITDA yield of 17%, which places it among the cheapest 10% of stocks in our liquid, tradeable universe of stocks (mkt cap > ~$2 bn).

ASO employs approximately 22,000 people, and operates 269 retail locations in 18 states across the southeastern US, as well as three distribution centers located in Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia.

ASO was written up in 2021 by baileyb906, and we encourage VIC members to review that writeup for additional background.

Q1 Weakness and Retail Crime Fallout

There are some good recent reasons to be pessimistic about the stock. First, fiscal Q1, ending 4/29/23, showed a negative trend -- a YoY decline in quarterly revenues of 5.7%. The company has also indicated Q2 would also be challenging. With earnings coming out next week, we will soon see. Most of the Q1 softness was due to a 15% YoY decline in revenues in its Outdoor division, traditionally the company's largest. The company has explained that 1) it had very tough comps versus the prior year in hunting, camping, fitness and bikes, and 2) the company's products are designed to be enjoyed outside, and much of the weakness was due to unfavorable weather patterns, including cooler temperatures and rain. Second, Dick's missed earnings pretty dramatically few days ago due to inventory shrink due to a rise in retail crime, and sold off ~20%. ASO has been caught up in concerns about how this might affect the sector. But this current weakness comes at the tail end of a successful multi-year turnaround story, and is a reasonable entry point.

Turnaround Background

By way of background, KKR bought 20% the company in 2011, and the company did poorly from 2013-2018 during which time, despite aggressive store count growth, EBITDA/Store fell from ~$2.5 million to ~$1 million. Enter Ken Hicks, who was appointed CEO in 2018. Hicks had previously run a successful turnaround at Foot Locker, increasing Sales, and EBIT and net income margins while there.

At Academy Sports, Hicks pursued a successful store expansion plan, oversaw its IPO in 2020, and grew sales from $4.8 bn in 2018 to $6.4 bn in 2022. KKR sold its stake in ~2021. As of Q4 22, the company had increased its market cap by almost $4 bn since its IPO, and had returned $2 bn to stakeholders, including $900 million of repurchases. It's been a successful turnaround.

Merchandise and TAM

The company sells merchandise across four divisions: Outdoors (Camping, Fishing, Hunting at ~31% of sales), Sports and recreation (Fitness, Team sports, Recreation at ~28% of sales), Apparel (Outdoor, Youth and Athletic apparel at ~21% of sales), and Footwear (Casual, Work, Youth and Athletic footwear at ~20% of sales).

The company believes its total addressable market in the US is ~$175 bn, of which Dick's Sporting Goods, the largest sporting goods competitor, has less than a 10% share, but also has over 2x the revenues of ASO. This suggests there may be room to take share, and the market looks healthy. The US sporting goods market has/is expected to grow at a 7.9% CAGR from 2019 to 2025, according to a Morgan Stanley Outdoor and Active Living 2022 survey. Additionally, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that consumer spending on sporting equipment, supplies, guns and ammunition grew at 5.6% CAGR from 2000 to 2022. The industry appears to be fragmented, but growing.

Favorable Geographic/Demographic Tailwinds

Approximately 29% of the company's stores are in the top 5 fastest growing metropolitan statistical areas, including parts of Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. Of note, approximately 40% of the company's stores are in Texas, which last year surpassed 30 million people, and which the company estimates will see population growth of 17% between 2020-30.

The company believes there is ample opportunity for geographic expansion. Walmart has a store within 10 miles of 88% of Americans. For ASO, the figure is 17%, which means there's a good runway for further penetration.

Succession

On June 1, 2023, the company announced that as a result of a planned succession process, Steven Lawrence was promoted from Chief Merchandising Officer and became the new CEO. Lawrence has announced a 5-year plan to open 120-140 new stores and achieve $10 bn in revenue by 2027 (approximately a 10% CAGR), up from ~$6 bn today, with a net income margin of 10%, and ROIC of 30%, which we think are attainable goals. The blueprint is in place, and now it falls to the new CEO to execute. Longer-term, the company sees the opportunity for 800 additional stores.

According to the best stock research websites, a key driver of the company's growth strategy is expansion of the store base by ~50% over the next few years, with new stores making up $2.4-$2.8 bn of the incremental revenue required to meet the goal of $10 bn.

Store Economics

The company's stores average approximately 70,000 SF and are highly profitable. The company seeks to lease all its stores via long-term lease agreements, ranging from 15 to 20 years, and executes sale-leaseback transactions for stores it is developing. ASO's average store delivers ~$4 million in EBIT, which is double the $2 million for Dick's. It costs approximately $4-$5 million to open a new store, which is expected in the first year to achieve $18 million in sales, be EBITDA positive, and have an ROIC of 20%. The stores ramp to $25 million in sales over 4-5 years. If the company can successfully open 120-140 new stores in the next 5 years, as planned, good things will happen to the stock price.

Omnichannel

ASO has built an e-commerce and mobile platform that allows enhanced consumer connection with stores. This includes buy-online-pickup-in-store program, and ship-to-store and curbside pickup programs. The company is also enhancing the customer experience through new features such as new site search capabilities, outfitting, express check-out, and biometric security.

The company expects its omnichannel efforts will be a continued driver of growth and gross margin. The company has stated that 75% of e-commerce sales are fulfilled in stores, and 60% of omnichannel customer spend came from within 10 miles of a store. Omnichannel customers spend more and purchase more frequently than the average customer. During 2022, stores facilitated approximately 95% of ASO's total sales.

Capex Budget and FCF

In support of its store expansion and growth goals, the company has unveiled a 5-year capex plan to invest $1.5 bn over the next five years. With $5.5 bn -$6 bn of anticipated adjusted EBIT projected over the next 5 years, the company anticipates the plan will be entirely self-funded through cash flow. Add an additional $0.5 bn to $ 1 bn required for WC and other factors, and that still leaves $3.5 bn in FCF available to stakeholders.

Return of Capital / Share Repurchases

The company has repurchased $440 million of stock in the past 12 months, and the company initiated a quarterly cash dividend in FY 22. We believe this is a shareholder friendly management team who will continue to return capital to shareholders when it makes sense. With the stock price as cheap as it is today relative to fundamentals, we would applaud additional buybacks at these prices.

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Operational Momentum: Increasing Margins, Returns, Inventory Turns

The company's gross margins have improved from 29% in 2018 to 34% LTM. Similarly, EBIT margins have improved from 3.5% in 2018, to 11.9% LTM. ROIC has improved from 14% in 2018 to 34% LTM. Inventory turns are also up, from 2.7x in 2018 to 3.2x LTM. These metrics demonstrate that the business has positive operating momentum, and is increasing efficiencies. The company's current ratio has increased from 1.4x a year ago to 1.6x today, indicating increased liquidity. Additionally, the company's ROE is 37%, demonstrating that it is using its equity capital effectively.

The company also boasts a strong balance sheet. The company's net debt has declined from $1.5 bn in 2018 to $0.5 bn currently. Additionally, the company maintains a $1 bn credit facility, with no debt maturities until 2027. This outperforms all estimates of the best stock screeners.

Summary

ASO trades at a P/E of 7x, and has an EBITDA/EV yield of 17%, which we think is cheap for a company that has been successfully turned around from 5 years ago, and with good growth prospects for the next 5 years. ASO is positioned to benefit from positive growth trends in its core product areas, and has stores in metropolitan areas that are growing. Its stores have become increasingly profitable and are being run efficiently, and compare favorably to those of its competitors. The company's ROE of 37% and ROIC of 34% are both impressive, indicating that it has done a good job managing its capital. Margins have strengthened over recent years, and are reasonable today with EBITDA margins of 14.9% and net margins of 9%. It has an ambitious store count growth plan for the next 5 years, with self-funded capital and a conservative balance sheet available to pursue it. It is generating strong positive free cash flow, and is buying back stock and returning capital to shareholders via dividends, demonstrating its friendliness to shareholders.

April 9, 2025, saw the largest one-day gain in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), follwing Trump's announcement of 90-day delay in the introduction of tariffs imposed on imports from all countries. The second-largest one-day gain occurred on March 24, 2020, with the index increasing ******** points. This occurred approximately two weeks after the largest one-day point loss occurred on March 9, 2020, which was triggered by the growing panic about the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Index fluctuations The DJIA is an index of ** large companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It is one of the numbers that financial analysts watch closely, using it as a bellwether for the United States economy. Seeing when these large gains occur, as well as the largest one-day point losses, gives insight to why these fluctuations may occur. The gains in 2009 are likely adjustments after major losses during the Financial Crisis, but those in 2018 are probably signs of high market volatility. Other leading financial indicators While the DJIA is closely watched, it only gives insight on the performance of thirty leading U.S. companies. An index like the S&P 500, tracking *** companies, can give a more comprehensive overview of the United States economy. Even so, this only reflects investment. Other parts of the economy, such as consumer spending or unemployment rate are not well reflected in stock market indices.