Lululemon (LULU) earnings Q2 2023

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

The athletic apparel retailer now expects sales for its full fiscal year 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

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.

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. 

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

For numerous quarters, Lululemon has been grappling with a glut in inventory. During its second quarter, inventories were still elevated 14% to $1.7 billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

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