Amer Sports (AS) reported Q2 2026 results on Tuesday before the close. The positive results and higher revised guidance pushed the stock 4.4% higher over the next two days of trading.
There is no question Amer stock has been a success since going public in February 2024 at $13 a share. They’re up 162% in the 30 months since its IPO, three times the S&P 500’s performance. If you bought IPO shares and still hold them, you’ve done well, despite the stock losing ground in 2026.
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In yesterday’s unusual options activity, Amer’s Dec. 18 $45 call had the third-highest Vol/OI (volume-to-open-interest) ratio at 92.26. It sets up several possible options strategies.
I’ve always liked the company. I followed it for many years during its previous run as a public company, which lasted 42 years, from 1977 until it was sold to a consortium led by Anta Sports (ANPDY) for $5.9 billion in September 2019.
The biggest hitch in Amer’s giddyup heading into the fall is whether its premium valuation makes it dead money for the foreseeable future.
I’ll consider this question and what options strategies make sense based on yesterday’s unusually active call.
The AS Call Option in Question
Five things stand out from Amer’s Dec. 18 $45 call:
1. The net debit, or cost of the call, is reasonable at 2.94% of the share price.
2. The strike price is 32.28% OTM (out-of-the-money), while the expected move is only 17.94%.
3. The volume of 11,902 is almost all new positions based on the 129 open interest.
4. The call’s volume accounted for 28% of yesterday’s total volume, which was 2.8 times the 30-day average.
5. The put/call volume ratio was 0.06, so almost all of yesterday’s volume was call options.
Now, I’ll get into Amer’s valuation situation, and then return to the options strategies.
Is AS Stock Good Value?
If you go by what analysts believe, it’s worth buying at current prices. As you can see below, 13 of the 14 analysts covering AS rate it a Strong Buy (4.86 out of 5), with a $50.29 target, 52% higher than its current price.
As I said in the introduction, Amer reported its Q2 2026 results Tuesday before the markets opened. They were excellent.
From Wall Street’s perspective, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, its second-quarter revenue of $1.63 billion was 5.2% higher than analyst expectations and 30% higher than a year ago, excluding currency.
On the bottom line, its adjusted earnings per share was $0.22, double the analyst estimate, and 267% higher than $0.06 in Q2 2025. Amer has had positive EPS surprises in the last four quarters, with the latest being the largest beat.
Investors can expect analysts to increase their price targets moderately based on the Q2 results.
Also encouraging: Amer raised its 2026 guidance.
“Looking ahead, the strong position of our brands, great execution by our teams, and healthy demand trends in the market, give us the confidence to raise our full year 2026 sales, margin, and EPS guidance,” stated Amer CFO Andrew Page.
It now expects revenue to grow by 24% to $8.13 billion, with gross and operating margins of 60.75% and 14.35%, respectively, at the midpoint of its guidance. Lastly, it expects 2026 EPS to be $1.285, up 32.5% from $0.97 a year ago.
So, there’s no question it deserves a growth multiple, but what is that multiple?
Based on the estimates, its enterprise value of $20.2 billion is 2.5 times 2026 sales and 27.1 times earnings per share.
Free cash flow (FCF) is a useful valuation metric. S&P Global Market Intelligence says the analysts’ estimate for the company’s 2027 FCF is $767 million. That’s an FCF yield of 3.8%. If you use the 2028 estimate of $990 million, the FCF yield rises to 4.9%; I consider FCF yields between 4% and 8% to be fair value.
The one big advantage of Amer Sports today, compared to the previous public company, is that it generates more revenue from softlines (apparel and footwear) than hardlines (equipment). That leads to higher gross margins.
In 2018, the last full year as a public company, Amer’s gross margin was 45.6%, 15.2 percentage points less than what’s expected for 2026. That makes it far easier to make a reasonable profit. In 2018, its operating margin was 8.6%, about 40% less than the company’s guidance for this year.
The current Amer Sports is far better positioned to grow revenue and earnings at 20-30% annually for an extended run. That’s what makes the valuation reasonable, if not cheap.
The Amer Call’s Option Strategies
Shown below is the long call information for the Dec. 18 $45 call. As I mentioned earlier, the $100 net debit is just 2.94% of the share price, a reasonable gamble on AS stock over the next four months. If the share price increases by $4.98 over the next 121 days, and you sell to close your call before expiration, you’ll double your money, despite the share price being $6 short of the $45 call. It’s a sensible bet despite the low probability of success.
The next possible options strategy would be a Covered Call, which involves owning or buying 100 shares of AS stock and simultaneously selling one call for premium income. Here’s how the trade looks as I write this Thursday morning.
As you can see, the shares are down over 4%, erasing the gains of the past two days. The bid price of $0.60 generates a 1.9% return from the premium income, while the annual return is 5.7% [1.9% * 365 / 120 DTE]. The potential return is 39.4% [$45 strike price + $0.60 premium - $32.89 share price / $32.89 share price - $0.60 premium]. This assumes the share price is above $45 at expiration and the shares are called away and assigned to the call’s buyer.
So, assuming the share price is above $32.29 on Dec. 18, at the very least, you won’t lose money; hence the 52.7% profit probability.
Other possible options strategies include a Bull Call Spread, Bear Call Spread, Diagonal Spread, a Poor Man’s Covered Call, and a Call Ratio Spread.
However, the trade shown below from yesterday at 10:07 a.m. ET suggests a very bullish long-call bet for several reasons. First, the 7,500-contract trade was 63% of the $45 strike’s volume on the day. Secondly, it was a single-leg trade on a newly opened position. Lastly, the $1.05 trade price, just five cents off the ask price, points to a very bullish, high-conviction bet on a big move over the next four months. Importantly, Amer has one more earnings report before expiration. That could move the shares greatly.
This is one time I tend to agree with the analysts: Amer Sports is a good buy at current prices. The trader/institution that made the 7,500-contract trade obviously feels the same.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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