Lululemon CEO ‘energised by opportunities ahead’ after Q3 results

Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ: LULU) lost about 7.0% in extended hours even after its reported strong results for its third financial quarter.

Why is Lululemon stock down in after-hours?

The stock is being punished primarily because the retailer issued downbeat guidance for its holiday quarter. Lululemon now forecasts its sales to fall between $3.14 billion and $3.17 billion in the current quarter on up to $4.93 of per-share earnings.

Analysts, in comparison, were at $3.18 billion and up to $5.19 a share, respectively. Still, Calvin McDonald – the Chief Executive of Lululemon Athletica said in a press release today:

Lululemon stock is still up 45% versus its year-to-date low.

Lululemon authorises share repurchase

On the plus side, Lululemon saw sales climb 12% in North America in its fiscal Q3 while international jumped a whopping 49%.

The Chief Executive also told analysts on the earnings call that ongoing trends were encouraging as he revealed Black Friday this year to be the “single biggest day” in the history of Lululemon Athletica.

The multinational athletic apparel retailer also announced a $1.0 billion share repurchase programme on Thursday. Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on its shares.

Lululemon Q3 earnings snapshot

• Earned $249 million versus the year-ago $255 million
• Per-share earnings also narrowed from $2.0 to $1.96
• Adjusted EPS printed at $2.53 as per the press release
• Revenue went up 19% year-on-year to $2.20 billion
• Consensus was $2.27 a share on $2.19 billion revenue

Lululemon reported an 18% annualised growth in its comparable direct-to-consumer sales for the third quarter – also ahead of expectations.