Johnson Outdoors Q3 2026 Earnings Report

Johnson Outdoors EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.42
• Consensus EPS: $0.68
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.74
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Johnson Outdoors Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $189.73 million
• Expected Revenue: $186.19 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$3.54 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Johnson Outdoors Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2026
• Date: 8/7/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Johnson Outdoors (NASDAQ:JOUT) is an outdoor recreation company that designs, manufactures and markets equipment for fishing, watercraft, diving, camping and other outdoor activities. Its products are sold through retailers, dealers and distributors in the United States and international markets.

The company’s fishing portfolio includes Minn Kota electric trolling motors, Humminbird marine electronics and Cannon downriggers. Its watercraft brands include Old Town kayaks and canoes, Ocean Kayak products and Carlisle paddles, while its camping business includes Eureka! tents and outdoor equipment and Jetboil cooking systems. SCUBAPRO provides scuba-diving equipment, including regulators, buoyancy systems, dive computers and accessories.

Johnson Outdoors traces its roots to the outdoor products business established by Samuel C. Johnson in 1970 and is headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin. The company continues to focus on developing branded equipment intended to support recreational activities on the water, underwater and in camping environments.

Johnson Outdoors Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter sales increased 5%, while operating income rose to $18.3 million from $7.3 million a year earlier. Approximately $15 million of tariff refunds significantly contributed to the earnings improvement.
• Positive Sentiment: The fishing and diving businesses showed solid momentum, supported by healthy demand for Minn Kota trolling motors and strong regulator and buoyancy-compensator sales at SCUBAPRO.
• Negative Sentiment: The earnings benefit from tariff refunds is unlikely to repeat, and underlying third-quarter gross margin was modestly below the prior year due to higher raw-material and electronic-component costs.
• Negative Sentiment: The camping and watercraft business faced a challenging quarter because of weak marketplace conditions, while inventory increased approximately $24.5 million year over year to $188.3 million.
• Positive Sentiment: Johnson Outdoors remains debt-free, continues to pay a meaningful dividend, and reported year-to-date pretax profit of $32.2 million versus a $4.3 million loss in the prior-year period.

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Johnson Outdoors' third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Today's call will be held by Helen Johnson-Leipold, Johnson Outdoors' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Also on the call is Asad Rahman, Chief Financial Officer. Prior to the question and answer session, all participants will be placed in a listen-only mode. After the prepared remarks, the question and answer session will begin. If you'd like to ask a question during that time, please press star then the number one one on your telephone keypad. This call is being recorded. Your participation implies consent to our recording of this call. If you do not agree with these terms, simply drop off the line. I'll now turn the call over to Andres Baptista from Johnson Outdoors. Please go ahead, Mr. Baptista.

[Andres Baptista, Chief Marketing Officer at Johnson Outdoors]

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for our discussion of Johnson Outdoors' results for the 2026 fiscal third quarter. If you need a copy of today's new release, it is available on our website at johnsonoutdoors.com under Investor Relations. I also need to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are made on the basis of our current views and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual events may differ materially from those statements due to a number of factors, many beyond Johnson Outdoors' control. These risks and uncertainties include those listed in our press release and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you have any additional questions following the call, please contact Asad Rahman or myself. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Helen Johnson-Leipold.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to share that Asad Rahman, our new Chief Financial Officer, joined Johnson Outdoors on June 30th. This follows the planned retirement later this year of our longtime CFO, Dave Johnson. We thank Dave for his many years of service and contributions to the company. I'm excited to have Asad on the call with us today. I'll begin by sharing perspective on the third quarter and year-to-date results, as well as give an update on each business. Asad will review the financial highlights. We will take your questions. The strength of our market-leading brands helped us deliver solid third quarter results, with total company sales increasing 5% versus the prior year quarter. Operating income was $18.3 million, $11 million higher than the prior year quarter, with approximately $15 million in tariff refunds received contributing to the improvement.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

Year-to-date, our net sales are 15% higher than last year's nine-month period, with operating income and gross margin also up for the fiscal year-to-date period. We are pleased with the results we delivered this quarter and the continued progress on our strategic priorities of innovation leadership, digital and e-commerce excellence, and operational efficiencies. In our fishing business, Minn Kota continues to be the leader in trolling motors. The quarter's results were driven by continued healthy demand for Minn Kota's full lineup of trolling motors. We are pleased with the momentum of our fishing portfolio. As always, we remain focused on investing in innovation and delivering differentiated technology that enhances the experience of the anglers worldwide. In our diving business, strong sales in regulators and buoyancy compensators helped drive a solid increase in third quarter sales.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

Digital engagement continues to play an increasingly important role enhancing connectivity between our SCUBAPRO brand, retail partners, and consumers. Our focus remains on enhancing brand visibility, improving consumer engagement, and supporting our retail partners around the world. Together, these initiatives strengthen the foundation of the business and underscore the enduring value of the SCUBAPRO brand. Finally, our camping and watercraft business faced a challenging quarter, primarily due to weakness in marketplace conditions. Jetboil remains a leader in camp cooking, and we're focused on capturing the many opportunities we see to further strengthen and expand the brand. With our Old Town brand, our portfolio of innovative, high-quality watercraft continues to resonate with consumers, and we remain committed to building on those strengths to drive sustainable growth over time. Overall, our results reflect the strength of our portfolio and the progress we are making against our strategic priorities.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

By remaining focused on innovation, expanding our digital and e-commerce presence, and driving operational efficiencies, we are positioning the business to perform through a range of market conditions and create long-term value. Now, I will turn the call over to Asad for more details on the financials.

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Thanks, Helen. Good morning, everyone. Gross margin for the third quarter improved to 45.3%, an increase of 7.7 points compared to the prior year quarter. The tariff refund of approximately $15 million contributed to this improvement. Excluding this benefit, gross margin would have been modestly lower than the prior year due to higher raw material costs. Looking ahead, we do not anticipate additional meaningful tariff refunds, and as the tariff landscape continues to evolve, we remain vigilant in managing potential cost impacts and are closely monitoring developments. Operating expenses increased $7 million from the prior year third quarter, due primarily to increased sales volume-related costs as well as increased variable compensation costs. Profit before income taxes for the third quarter was $23.3 million, compared to $10.5 million in the previous year quarter. Driven mostly by the factors I just mentioned.

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

During the quarter, we increased inventory levels to support sales demand. Our inventory balance at the end of the third quarter was $188.3 million, up about $24.5 million from the previous year third quarter. Year-to-date, gross margin is 40.6%, up 5.8 points from the prior year-to-date period. Tariff refunds, pricing actions, improved overhead absorption, and cost-saving initiatives more than offset higher material costs to drive margin improvement in the current year-to-date period. Our ongoing strategic cost savings program remains critical and continues to deliver meaningful benefits to our bottom line.

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Profit before income taxes on a year-to-date basis was $32.2 million, compared to a loss of $4.3 million during the previous year period, which resulted in an increase of approximately $36.5 million as a result of the strong gross margin improvement mentioned earlier. Looking ahead, we remain focused on actively managing the business to balance near-term pressures while continuing to invest in priorities that support sustainable growth. Our balance sheet remains debt-free, and we continue to pay a meaningful dividend to shareholders with the board approving our most recent dividend announced in May. I'll turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Anthony Lebiedzinski from Sidoti. The line is now open.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Good morning, thanks for taking the questions. It's really nice to see the results, especially in fishing and diving. Maybe first, if we could just talk about how the quarter progressed from April to June and any early reads so far how July was.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

We had varied results across the business, but we feel good that our plans for innovation have kicked in, but the market is very complex. We're not going to give any forward-looking statements, but the momentum is good, and we're keeping focused on strategic priorities, so hopefully things continue.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Understood. Okay, got it. Okay. Then can you just talk about the pricing actions, and the impact they had on the fishing revenue?

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Pricing was a factor this quarter, and we did strategic pricing where it made sense for our products, keeping in mind the consumer and demand dynamics.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Understood. Right. As you mentioned, the gross margin excluding the tariff refund came in just slightly below, relatively in line with a year ago. How do we think about gross margins here kind of going forward? Maybe if you could just go over the various puts and takes that we should be mindful of.

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Yeah. Gross margin, as you mentioned, was flattish, excluding refunds. Pricing and cost savings continue to be a good factor for us. Increasing raw material cost is the headwind. Like many companies, electronic industry component costs are dynamic for us, and that's something we are monitoring. It is a good thing that our cost savings efforts in place are there to help offset that.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Got it. Understood. Okay. Just switching gears to the operating expenses, they did come in higher than what we had expected, and we're up 11.5% from last year. I know you touched on this a little bit as far as the increased sales and marketing costs as well as variable compensation expenses. If we were to separate those two, what was the larger factor driving the higher operating expenses? Broadly speaking, how should we think about operating expenses going forward?

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Roughly half of that was related to the variable compensation cost. The rest was related to volume-related costs and other expenses. We continue to manage our expenses prudently while investing in key priorities that are the right things to set us up for long-term success.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Got it. All right, lastly from me here. The tax rate has jumped around quarter-to-quarter so far this year. Any kind of ballpark estimate how to think about the tax rate for the fourth quarter and any perhaps early read for fiscal 2027 as to how to think about the tax rate?

[Asad Rahman, CFO at Johnson Outdoors]

Because of the valuation allowance on the U.S. income right now, we knew that the tax rate would be up and down each quarter. To think of it practically, for the full year, it's going to be about $5 million-$6 million of tax expense for the year.

[Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti]

Okay. That's very helpful. All right. Thank you very much, and best of luck.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll now turn it back to Helen Johnson-Leipold for closing remarks.

[Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Outdoors]

Thank you all for joining us, and have a good day. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Andres Baptista, Chief Marketing Officer
• Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and CEO
• Asad Rahman, CFO

Analysts

• Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst at Sidoti