New York, May 21, 2026, 18:06 (EDT)
Deckers Outdoor shares rose in regular trading and briefly rallied after the HOKA and UGG owner beat quarterly expectations on Thursday, before fading in late trading as investors picked through a lower-margin outlook for the year ahead.
The stock closed up about 4.5% near $102.70, then was reported up 4.5% after the release at $107.17 before slipping to about $100.56, down 2.1% from the regular close, by 6 p.m. Eastern, market data showed.
The move matters because Deckers is again being tested as a premium-footwear growth story. The company forecast fiscal 2027 sales of $5.86 billion to $5.91 billion and per-share profit of $7.30 to $7.45, above average analyst estimates of $5.82 billion and $7.34 cited by Reuters from LSEG data.
Deckers said fourth-quarter net sales rose 9.6% to $1.119 billion. HOKA sales climbed 14.5% to $671.2 million, UGG rose 9.2% to $408.6 million, and direct-to-consumer sales — sales through Deckers’ own stores and websites — rose 13.2%. Wholesale sales to retailers gained 7.1%.
Chief Executive Stefano Caroti called fiscal 2026 “another record year,” pointing to the “continued momentum of HOKA” and “enduring strength of UGG.” Full-year revenue rose 9.8% to $5.472 billion, while diluted per-share earnings, or profit divided across shares outstanding, rose 11% to $7.02. Deckers Outdoor Corporation
The cleaner sales story came with a margin wrinkle. Gross margin — the share of sales left after product costs — improved to 57.6% in the fourth quarter from 56.7% a year earlier, but Deckers guided fiscal 2027 gross margin to about 56.5%. It expects operating margin of about 21.5%.
Deckers also leaned harder into capital returns. Its board added $3.5 billion to the stock-buyback authorization, taking the total to about $5 billion, after the company repurchased about $1.075 billion of stock in fiscal 2026. Buybacks can support per-share profit by reducing the share count, though only when executed.
Chief Financial Officer Steve Fasching said Deckers generated “over one billion dollars of free cash flow,” meaning cash left after operating needs and capital spending. The fiscal 2027 profit forecast assumes share repurchases equal to about 80% of projected free cash flow. Deckers Outdoor Corporation
The competitive read was mixed. Piper Sandler analyst Anna Andreeva upgraded Deckers to Neutral from Underweight this week and raised the price target to $100, while The Fly reported through TipRanks that Piper viewed the shares as “not expensive” after their pullback. Still, the firm said it continued to prefer On Holding in athletic footwear, citing tougher sneaker competition. Sahm
But the downside case is not hard to find. Deckers warned that its outlook is exposed to consumer confidence, discretionary spending, inflation, foreign exchange, tariffs, trade restrictions and supply-chain disruption, and the forecast does not assume tariff refunds. Reuters also noted Deckers’ heavy reliance on Vietnam as a manufacturing hub, keeping trade policy in focus.
Other brands remain a drag, too. Sales outside HOKA and UGG fell 35.6% in the quarter, which the company tied mainly to the phase-out of Koolaburra standalone operations and the sale of Sanuk. For now, HOKA and UGG are carrying the story; the after-hours fade showed investors still want proof that growth can hold without giving too much back in margin.
