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This time a year ago, shares of Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) were trading for something approaching a value for an established but fast-growing athletic wear company. Since then, Lululemon’s stock has risen nearly 30%, even as revenue growth has lost a bit of steam. With shares now trading for over 50 times trailing-12-month earnings per share, suffice to say the “value trade” is now gone.
Nevertheless, Lululemon has continued to surprise shareholders with better-than-expected financial numbers, even in the face of heightened competition and weakening consumer spending in the retail space. Is Lululemon stock still a buy?
First, consider Lululemon’s outperformance in the second quarter of 2023. Sales grew 18% year over year to $2.2 billion, about $30 million better than the high end of guidance management provided a few months ago. As a result, full-year 2023 guidance was raised to a range of $9.51 billion to $9.57 billion (previously $9.44 billion to $9.51 billion), implying growth of 17% to 18% over 2022.