After a year of significant price increases, companies are trying to figure out how far they can go in 2023. 

Companies in 2022 increased sale prices to offset higher costs for everything from freight to wages to raw materials such as lumber and steel, with little pushback from customers. Net profit margins at S&P 500 companies hit 11.6% during the third quarter of 2022, down from 12.7% the same period a year earlier but still higher than the same period in 2020 and before the pandemic, according to financial data company Refinitiv. 

Companies including burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., financial data and software company  FactSet Research Systems Inc. and beauty products maker Ulta Beauty Inc. raised prices throughout 2022 and are hopeful they will retain some pricing power in the new year, even as inflation begins to slow. However, pricing experts said, consumers and businesses will likely pull back on discretionary spending and will be less tolerant of price increases as they become mindful of their budgets. 

S&P Global Ratings forecasts that the consumer-price index, which measures what consumers pay for goods and services, will average 6.3% growth in the first three months of 2023, before falling to 4.2% in the second quarter and 3.6% in the third. While that would be a marked slowdown from the recent 7.1% rate for November and the June peak of 9.1%, it remains sharply higher than the 2.1% three-year average rate before the pandemic. The Labor Department on Thursday is set to release its December CPI. 

Michael Mullican, chief financial officer at Academy.

Photo: Academy Sports & Outdoors

With the prospect of a recession or growth downturn ahead as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive inflation-fighting campaign slows the economy, finance chiefs are watching closely for signs of how consumers and businesses are tolerating price increases. “There is no doubt that the consumer is under pressure,” said Michael Mullican, finance chief at sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer Academy Sports & Outdoors Inc.

The Katy, Texas-based retailer takes an item-by-item approach to price increases. For instance, Academy runs a promotion in the summer for a barbecue grill at $199—a key price point that brings in consumers, according to Mr. Mullican. “Costs have increased substantially to make that item, but it’s such an important price point and traffic driver, that we’re not going to pass that cost on,” he said. 

Other retailers have been known to hold prices on certain items despite rising costs. Costco Wholesale Corp. , for instance, has famously held its hot dog and soda combo at $1.50, with CFO Richard Galanti describing the price point as “sacrosanct.”

Conversely, Academy continues to sell its cheapest bike for $99 to compete with big-box retailers, but higher-end bikes are being sold at higher prices, Mr. Mullican said. “We’re not passing price increases…on every item,” the CFO said. Academy is considering additional price increases in 2023, though Mr. Mullican said he is hesitant to pass higher costs to consumers whose wallets are being hit by inflationary pressures. 

Pricing experts are advising clients to adopt a similar playbook in the year ahead. Gone are the days of across-the-board price hikes, which were absorbed more readily by customers earlier in the pandemic when companies had few other avenues for preserving their margins, said Mark Burton, a partner at advisory firm Bain & Co.

With supply constraints now easing and inflation dominating headlines, a sense of price-increase fatigue has set in for both consumers and businesses that will only be amplified by growing economic uncertainty in the year ahead, experts said.

Consider Newport Beach, Calif.-based Chipotle, which raised menu prices three times in 2022 to offset inflationary pressures. This includes an increase in the fourth quarter, which is expected to lift average menu prices by 12% compared with a year earlier, according to a spokeswoman. The company next month will report on its fourth quarter. Chipotle declined to comment on pricing plans for 2023.

“We still think we have a lot of pricing power,” said Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung. Still, he said, Chipotle would welcome inflationary relief so the company didn’t have to raise prices again. 

Linda Huber, chief financial officer of FactSet.

Photo: FactSet Research Systems Inc.

Norwalk, Conn.-based FactSet increased prices 4% in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31—first in the Americas and then the rest of the world—in response to increased costs such as higher wages, CFO

Linda Huber said. The company considers where it stands relative to competitors when adjusting its own prices and is also mindful of how economic pressures may affect client spending. 

Customers haven’t balked at higher price tags, Ms. Huber said in late October. “So far, our sales team indicates that things seem to be going pretty well,” she said. FactSet expects to go out with a more than 4% price increase 2023, according to Ms. Huber, though she declined to say by exactly how much.  

Ulta Beauty, meanwhile, leading up to and during the pandemic executed annual price increases averaging 1% to 3%, which typically affected around 10% to 15% of the retailer’s product portfolio, according to finance chief Scott Settersten.

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The company in 2022 dialed up prices at higher rates, both in number of items and in average price increase, Mr. Settersten said, declining to provide specific figures. “The rate of increase and the breadth of it across our assortment, we’ve never seen this before in the history of the company,” he said. 

Still, the company said the aggressive price hikes in 2022 haven’t yet had a significant impact on consumers’ behavior. The company looks at metrics such as sales, traffic and spending trends for signs indicating a pullback in spending or that consumers are balking at price increases. 

“We’re looking at the data and looking for signs that there might be some pushback,” because of price hikes, Mr. Settersten said last month. “We haven’t seen that so far.” 

Write to Jennifer Williams-Alvarez at jennifer.williams-alvarez@wsj.com and Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com