Recreational vehicle (RV) and boat retailer Camping World (NYSE: CWH) fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales falling 4.2% year on year to $1.35 billion. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.21 per share was 32.6% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Camping World (CWH) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.35 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.41 billion (4.2% year-on-year decline, 3.7% miss)
- Adjusted EPS: -$0.21 vs analyst estimates of -$0.31 (32.6% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $27.99 million vs analyst estimates of $17.66 million (2.1% margin, 58.5% beat)
- Operating Margin: 1.6%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow was -$100.2 million compared to -$256 million in the same quarter last year
- Locations: 199 at quarter end, down from 209 in the same quarter last year
- Same-Store Sales fell 4.2% year on year (3% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $432.6 million
Company Overview
Founded in 1966 as a single recreational vehicle (RV) dealership, Camping World (NYSE: CWH) still sells RVs along with boats and general merchandise for outdoor activities.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years.
With $6.31 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Camping World is a mid-sized retailer, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from better economies of scale.
As you can see below, Camping World struggled to generate demand over the last three years. Its sales dropped by 2.4% annually as it closed stores.
This quarter, Camping World missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 4.2% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $1.35 billion of revenue.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.9% over the next 12 months, an acceleration versus the last three years. This projection is healthy and implies its newer products will catalyze better top-line performance.
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Store Performance
Number of Stores
Camping World listed 199 locations in the latest quarter and has generally closed its stores over the last two years, averaging 2.1% annual declines.
When a retailer shutters stores, it usually means that brick-and-mortar demand is less than supply, and it is responding by closing underperforming locations to improve profitability.
Same-Store Sales
The change in a company's store base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations and e-commerce sales, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales provides a deeper understanding of this issue because it measures organic growth at brick-and-mortar shops for at least a year.
Camping World’s demand within its existing locations has barely increased over the last two years as its same-store sales were flat. This performance isn’t ideal, and Camping World is attempting to boost same-store sales by closing stores (fewer locations sometimes lead to higher same-store sales).
In the latest quarter, Camping World’s same-store sales fell by 4.2% year on year. This decrease represents a further deceleration from its historical levels. We hope the business can get back on track.
Key Takeaways from Camping World’s Q1 Results
It was good to see Camping World beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also excited its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. On the other hand, its revenue missed. Overall, we think this was a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $7.19 immediately after reporting.
Sure, Camping World had a solid quarter, but if we look at the bigger picture, is this stock a buy? When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
