Strong holiday sales drive up Lululemon earnings
NEW YORK— Lululemon’s fiscal fourth-quarter performance beat Wall Street’s view, bolstered by strong holiday sales.
For the period ended Jan. 31, the Canadian yoga-wear company earned $117.4 million (U.S.), or 85 cents per share. A year earlier it earned $110.9 million, or 78 cents per share.
Analysts polled by FactSet predicted 80 cents a share.
Revenue climbed to $704.3 million from $602.5 million, topping the $692.6 million that analysts had expected.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, increased 5 per cent on a constantdollar basis.
This figure excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. reported a full-year adjusted profit of $1.86 per share on revenue of $2.06 billion.
On a constant-dollar basis, samestore sales rose 4 per cent.
Looking ahead, the chain anticipates first-quarter profit between 28 cents and 30 cents a share on revenue in a range of $483 million to $488 million.
Lululemon expects fiscal 2016 profit between $2.05 and $2.15 per share on revenue in a range of $2.29 billion to $2.34 billion.
Wall Street is looking for a firstquarter profit of 37 cents per share on revenue of $486.1 million and fiscal 2016 profit of $2.16 per share on revenue of $2.32 billion.
Its shares are up almost 2 per cent over the past year.