The news
Academy Sports + Outdoors received $83.7 million in tariff refunds in its fiscal second quarter and kept $11.5 million of it. The rest went to the investor that bought the rights last year, according to the company’s 10-Q. Academy had been paid $10.5 million for those rights, about 15 cents on the dollar.
Claims were still changing hands over the summer, Supply Chain Dive reported. Another $11.4 billion of refunds, on entries Customs had already closed out, is unpaid. Academy’s filing shows what an early sale cost once the money arrived.
What changed
The sale: in its fiscal third quarter last year, Academy sold “a portion of the rights to potential tariff relief litigation claims” for $6.5 million. The Federal Circuit had ruled against the tariffs, but the Supreme Court had not heard the case and no refund process existed. By spring the proceeds had reached $10.5 million, carried as a liability because the refunds “were not realized or realizable.”
The refund: “substantially all” of it came in the second quarter, CFO Carl Ford said on the earnings call. Academy booked the full $83.7 million against cost of goods sold.
The payout: $72.2 million to the buyer. “Other expenses include $61.8 million attributable to the tariff refunds we sold in 2025,” Ford said, the payout less the $10.5 million already collected.
The price cuts: $10.9 million of what Academy kept went into prices, per the earnings slides: grills at $99.99, a fishing shirt cut to $19.99 from $24.99, a coaches’ polo held at $9.99.
How it works
The court calendar set the price of a refund claim. In the fall of 2025, the refunds were not yet realizable, so Academy booked the proceeds as a liability rather than income. Accountants were telling clients to treat any sale as a loan, Joseph Cascio of RSM US told Thomson Reuters. Pre-ruling offers ran about 20 cents on the dollar, Gregory Husian, a partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, told The Wall Street Journal.
Claims traded around 60 cents once Customs opened its refund portal in April, Supply Chain Dive reported. Husian told the Journal valuations had since climbed to 80 to 90 cents.
Academy sold before the ruling and got the pre-ruling price.
The pattern
Academy is one of at least five companies that have disclosed selling refund rights since last August. It sold earliest and cheapest.
American Eagle sold $68.9 million of its $192 million in claims for $18.6 million, or 27 cents, before the Supreme Court ruling. Its own 10-Q shows $195.7 million received and $70.8 million paid out, plus $52 million of accretion expense booked as interest.
Children’s Place sold $38.2 million of claims for $25.7 million, or 67 cents, five weeks after the ruling.
Accuray sold its entire $9 million claim for $6.6 million, or 73 cents, in the spring.
Universal Electronics sold all of its claims for about $7.6 million after the portal opened.
Selling is the minority choice. More than 90 public companies had disclosed refund claims by late summer, USA Today found in a review of filings. Five have disclosed a sale.
The counter
Academy did not need the cash. It ended the quarter with $298 million on hand and bought back $182 million of stock in the first half. The sale was a hedge on a court case, made at the price the case allowed at the time. Ford said on the first-quarter call that guidance had counted “what we monetize as well as what we expect to receive.”
Others held and collected in full. BJ’s Wholesale agreed to sell $29 million of claims to Oaktree Capital at 70 cents, then backed out when the portal opened and kept the full amount for member price cuts; Oaktree sued. Home Depot and Nike held their claims. Deere has collected $382 million this year.
GoPro is the case at the other end. It signed its entire $19.4 million claim over to its lender while warning of going-concern doubts, and the refund now pays down debt.
What’s next
The $11.4 billion of refunds on entries Customs had already finally liquidated is the bucket still unpaid. The Court of International Trade ordered Customs to reliquidate those entries for the plaintiffs in its consolidated cases. The Justice Department’s appeal of the refund orders is pending at the Federal Circuit. Those claims are still changing hands while it runs. Academy expects no further refund effect on its results this year.
