Lululemon sees sales and profit jump 18%, boosts full-year guidance

Lululemon raised its full-year guidance Thursday after reporting an 18% jump in both sales and profit for its fiscal second quarter, beating Wall Street’s estimates. 

The athletic apparel retailer now expects sales to be between $9.51 billion and $9.57 billion for the fiscal year, compared to a previous range of $9.44 billion to $9.51 billion.

Lululemon is expecting profits to be between $12.02 to $12.17 per share for the year, compared to a previous range of $11.74 to $11.94.

For its current quarter, the retailer is forecasting earnings per share of $2.23 to $2.28 and sales of $2.17 billion to $2.19 billion, in line with analysts’ expectations, according to Refinitiv.

Here’s how Lululemon did in its second fiscal quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: $2.68 vs. $2.54 expected
• Revenue: $2.21 billion vs. $2.17 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended July 30 was $341.6 million, or $2.68 per share, compared with $289.5 million, or $2.26 per share, a year earlier. 

Sales rose to $2.21 billion, up about 18% from $1.87 billion a year earlier.

The company easily beat Wall Street’s estimates on the top and bottom lines but fell short of same store sales expectations: Comparable sales were up 11% in the quarter, compared to an estimate of up 12.1%, according to StreetAccount.

Lululemon has undertaken an ambitious growth plan — its “Power of Three x2” strategy — that calls for sales to double to $12.5 billion by 2026 compared to 2021’s revenue of $6.25 billion. To get there, the retailer has been working to expand its brick-and-mortar footprint and double its men’s and direct-to-consumer revenue.

Sales in the men’s category were up 15% during the quarter, and the retailer opened 10 new stores on a net basis, including its first in Thailand. By the end of the quarter, it had 672 stores globally.

It’s also been working to address a persistent inventory glut, with year-over-year levels steadily coming down. During its second quarter, inventories were up 14% to $1.7 billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Direct to consumer revenue was up 15% but it was a smaller part of Lululemon’s overall channel mix in the quarter. Direct to consumer sales represented 40% of Lululemon’s overall sales, compared to 42% in the year ago period.

Sales in North America were up 11%, while revenue internationally was up 52%.

Lululemon’s gross margin was largely in line with expectations at 58.8%, compared to the 58.5% analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.

Read the full earnings release here.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.