Vancouver yogawear giant Lululemon Athletica Inc. on March 27 revealed sales and earnings for its fourth quarter of 2017 and raised analyst eyebrows by topping expectations. Its shares (Nasdaq:LULU) jumped 6% to US$83.43 in after-hours trading.
Strong overseas sales and a healthy e-commerce business in the U.S. was part of what the company said was behind those vigorous results.
Lululemon reported that during the quarter it generated US$929 million in net revenue, which was 1.8% higher than the US$912 million that analysts were expecting.
Those sales were also 18% more than in the same quarter a year ago.
Lululemon’s quarterly profit was US$120 million, or US$0.88 per share during the quarter that ended December 31 – 11.8% less than the US$136.1 million, or US$0.99 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
When adjusted for the one-time item of restructuring the company’s ivivva brand, Lululemon earned US$1.33 per share, which was more than the US$1.27 per share that analysts had expected.
“The company continues to execute successfully on its global growth strategies,” Glenn Murphy, executive chairman of Lululemon’s board and essentially its current CEO, said in a release.
The company’s strong performance quells some market anxiety about it not currently having a designated full-time CEO.
Business in Vancouver has previously reported that former CEO Laurent Potdevin resigned, effective immediately, on February 5. A company statement at the time said that Potdevin “fell short” of company standards and there were subsequent media reports that Potdevin had a multi-year relationship with a female designer at the company.
It was therefore left to COO Stuart Haselden, in a March 27 release, to outline where he sees the company going.
“We are seeing strong momentum across our business as we now move into 2018, which is further positioning us to achieve our 2020 revenue goal of US$4 billion,” Haselden said.
