Sifting through countless of stocks in the Specialty Retail industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a sporting goods and outdoor recreational retailer in the United States. The company’s outdoors division comprises camping products, such as coolers and drinkware, camping accessories and equipment, and watersports and equipment; fishing products, including marine equipment and fishing rods, reels, and baits and equipment; and hunting products, which includes firearms, ammunition, archery and archery equipment, camouflage apparel, waders, shooting accessories, gun safes, optics, airguns, and hunting equipment. Its sports and recreation division offers fitness equipment, fitness accessories, and nutrition supplies; team and specialty sports equipment, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, racket sports, volleyball, backpacks, and sports bags; recreation products, which includes patio furniture, outdoor cooking, trampolines, and play sets, as well as wheeled goods that include bicycles, skateboards, and other ride-on toys; and electronics, watches, and sunglasses, as well as front-end products, such as consumables, batteries, etc. The company’s apparel division provides outdoor and seasonal apparel, denim, work apparel, graphic t-shirts, accessories, and outerwear; boys and girls outdoor, and athletic apparel and swimwear; sporting and fitness apparel; and professional and collegiate team licensed apparel and accessories. Its footwear division offers casual shoes, slippers, seasonal footwear, and socks; work and western boots, shoes, and hunting footwear; boys and girls footwear; athletic footwear, such as running shoes, athletic lifestyle, and training shoes; and team and specialty sports footwear, and slides. The company sells its products under the Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet, Freely, R.O.W., Redfield, and H2OX brand names. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Katy, Texas.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. offers lifestyle products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Subscription. It operates Urban Outfitters stores, which offer women’s and men’s fashion apparel, activewear, intimates, footwear, accessories, home goods, electronics, and beauty products for young adults aged 18 to 28; and Anthropologie stores that provide women’s apparel, accessories, intimates, shoes, furniture, home décor, and beauty and wellness products, as well as gifts and decorative items for women aged 28 to 45. The company also operates Terrain stores that provide lifestyle home products, garden and outdoor living products, antiques, live plants, flowers, wellness products, and accessories. In addition, it operates Free People retail stores, which offer casual women’s apparel, intimates, activewear, shoes, accessories, home products, gifts, and beauty and wellness products for young women aged 25 to 30; and restaurants and event venues, as well as women’s apparel subscription rental service under the Nuuly brand. Further, the company designs, develops, and markets young women’s contemporary casual apparel, intimates, activewear, and shoes under the Free People and FP Movement brands; and apparel collections under the Urban Outfitters brand. It serves its customers directly through retail stores, websites, mobile applications, catalogs and customer contact centers, franchisee-owned stores, and department and specialty stores, as well as social media and third-party digital platforms. Urban Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Latest Specialty Retail and Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters, Inc. Stock News

As of May 15, 2026, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. had a $3.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the Specialty Retail median of $813.9 million. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.’s stock is up 1.2% in 2026, down 6.6% in the previous five trading days and up 10.2% in the past year.

Currently, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 9.1. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $6.1 billion with a 6.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 2.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $6.304 per share for the current fiscal year. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. currently has a 1.2% dividend yield.

As of May 15, 2026, Urban Outfitters, Inc. had a $5.9 billion market cap, putting it in the 70th percentile of all stocks. Urban Outfitters, Inc.’s stock is down 8.4% in 2026, down 3.6% in the previous five trading days and up 14.19% in the past year.

Currently, Urban Outfitters, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 13.6. Urban Outfitters, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $6.2 billion with a 7.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $5.923 per share for the current fiscal year. Urban Outfitters, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.	ASO	A
Urban Outfitters, Inc.	URBN	B

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. has a Value Score of 88, which is Deep Value. Urban Outfitters, Inc. has a Value Score of 69, which is Value.

The Value Stock Winner: Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. is considered to have better value than Urban Outfitters, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.	ASO	C
Urban Outfitters, Inc.	URBN	C

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 46, which is Average. Urban Outfitters, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 51, which is Average.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters or Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.	ASO	D
Urban Outfitters, Inc.	URBN	B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 33, which is Negative. Urban Outfitters, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 66, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: Urban Outfitters, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, Urban Outfitters, Inc. has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, Urban Outfitters, Inc. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Estimate Revisions and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Quality.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 88, Momentum Score of 46 and Estimate Revisions Score of 33.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 69, Momentum Score of 51 and Estimate Revisions Score of 66.

Comparing Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., Urban Outfitters and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.