Lululemon Stock Gains on Signs of Improvement in Q3

Lululemon Athletica Inc. perked up some in the third quarter — and investors breathed a sigh of relief.

Shares of the company rose 10.5 percent to $381 in after-hours trading on Thursday as the company topped earnings expectations and nudged up its outlook, with strong international growth buttressing the Americas business.

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Wall Street has been closely watching the active brand after an unusual run of weaker results in the U.S. market, but investors clearly liked what they saw in the third quarter.

The company’s net income increased 41.5 percent for the quarter to $351.9 million, or $2.87 a diluted share, from $248.7 million, or $1.96, a year earlier.

That put earnings per share 5 cents ahead of the $2.72 Wall Street analysts projected, according to Yahoo Finance.

Revenues for the three months ended Oct. 27 increased 8.7 percent to $2.4 billion from $2.2 billion a year earlier.

The brand added 28 stores during the quarter, including 14 that were acquired along with the acquisition of its operations in Mexico. The deal closed Sept. 10 and the company said it had an immaterial impact on the results. That left Lululemon with a retail footprint of 749 stores.

Comparable sales rose 4 percent — with a 2 percent decline in the Americas being offset by a 25 percent jump in the international business.

Calvin McDonald, chief executive officer, told analysts that U.S. sales were flat on a net basis, consistent with the second quarter and in line with expectations.

Lululemon has been working to juice up the U.S. business, chasing styles with updated colors, prints and patterns.

“We are on track with our efforts to increase the penetration of seasonal newness and expect to be in line with historical levels in quarter one 2025,” McDonald said. “I feel good about the quality and quantity of newness the teams have planned, and I believe we are well positioned for spring.”

He said the business had realized “sequential improvement in newness within our assortment in the back half.”

“We continue to see significant potential for growth in the U.S.,” McDonald said. “Our guest retention remains high, and we see an opportunity to drive higher revenue per guest, with more newness in the assortment.”

The start of the holiday rush also gave the company a boost.

“We are pleased with our business over the extended Thanksgiving weekend and the traffic trends we saw across both our store and e-commerce channels,” McDonald said. “On Black Friday, we had the most visits ever to our shop app and e-commerce site. Unlike others in the space, we do not run sale events across our entire store. We leverage the increased traffic over this period to clear through product.