Columbia Sportswear Forecasts Mid-Single-Digit Wholesale Growth For First Half Of 2027
The spring order book strengthened since the last call, but the CFO would not sketch 2027 margins beyond a roughly 180-basis-point tariff-refund benefit.
Columbia Sportswear is forecasting wholesale growth in the mid-single-digit range for the first half of 2027, both in the U.S. and globally, Chairman and CEO Tim Boyle said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Thursday. The outdoor apparel maker reported net sales of $963 million, up 2%, and earnings of $1.66 a share against $0.95 a year earlier.
A spring order book that keeps growing
Columbia, which designs and sells apparel, footwear and gear under the Columbia, SOREL, Mountain Hardware and prAna brands, said the spring wholesale order book improved from low-to-mid single-digit growth at the last call. Boyle said the company intends to give full-year 2027 guidance on its fourth-quarter call.
Executive Vice President and CFO Jim Swanson told a Stifel analyst that U.S. wholesale in the spring book runs low to mid single digits and leans toward mid single digits. International growth is expected to keep increasing.
For the fourth quarter, Columbia guided to sales growth of 3.5% to 7% and EPS of $1.85 to $2.10. Swanson said about $30 million of revenue shifts between the third and fourth quarters, worth 2.5 to 3 percentage points of growth in each.
No margin outlook beyond the tariff refund
Pressed by analysts from Baird and UBS on 2027 gross margin, Swanson said adjusting for the roughly 180 basis points of tariff refunds, net of factory accommodations, this year was valid. Beyond that, he said, it was "really tough to provide any indication." A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
He said product input cost pressures "will increasingly impact us in the latter part of next year," and that the company is taking "surgical price increases where we can." Swanson said the company expects to leverage SG&A (selling and administrative costs) depending on full-year revenue growth, and will update on gross margin in February at its year-end call.
On tariffs, Swanson said this year carries a full year of incremental U.S. tariffs, while last year's only began midway through the third quarter. High single-digit price increases for spring and fall 2026 offset them.
Third quarter beat on timing and e-commerce
Third-quarter gross margin slipped 20 basis points to 49.8%, including a 50-basis-point headwind from factory accommodations net of tariff refunds. Operating margin was 11.4%. The company holds $230 million in cash and short-term investments and no debt.
Swanson said about $25 million of the revenue beat came mostly from earlier wholesale shipments, roughly $20 million, with the rest from direct-to-consumer sales. U.S. sales fell 1%, but U.S. e-commerce grew mid single digits. Sales outside the U.S. and Canada, about 35% of the total, rose 9%.
The company's market value was $3.1 billion as of Thursday's report.
Boyle said the company is positioned to reach the upper half of its initial 2026 sales and earnings guidance, with the fourth quarter critical to getting there.
Sources
- Columbia Sportswear GAAP EPS of $1.66 beats by $0.38, revenue of $962.6M beats by $24.03M (COLM:NASDAQ) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Columbia Sportswear Company to Announce Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results on Thursday, October 29, 2026 – Company Announcement - FT.com — Financial Times
- Columbia Sportswear: Q3 Earnings Snapshot – WTOP News — wtop.com
- Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM) Stock Forecasts — Yahoo Finance
- Is Columbia Sportswear (COLM) Trading At A Discount To Cash Flow? — Yahoo Finance
