Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) has been facing stiff competition from the likes of Nike and Addidas. Even though the company commands a significant share of the market, it has recently been losing a lot of its customers. However, the new management, under the helm of CEO, Laurent Potdevin, has been making efforts to recapture the market, with some success.
In the last 6 months, the company has added innovative products to its inventory, which includes the recently launched female pants. Additionally, the management has also been focusing a lot of its resources on branding and advertising, by sponsoring local events around offices located in different countries. This also includes the addition of Miguel Almeida, as the company’s lead for global digital transformation.
Some of the results of these efforts were prominent in the 2Q2015 filing by the company. As per the report, LULU had revenues amounting to $453 million, which was up by 16% as compared to the same period in the preceding year. Unfortunately, the company’s gross margins experienced a sharp decline of 370bp year-over-year. Additionally, the company is currently overstocked for the 3Q2015, by an estimated 44%. This is also one of the highest sales gaps experienced by the company. However, the increase in revenues hints at the possibility of recovery, as the company tries to capture additional customers and improve store productivity.
The most important aspect of Lululemon’s business is its interaction with local athletes and yogis, so as to gain feedback for its products and make the necessary adjustments. Even though the analysts have expressed mixed views about the stock’s prospect, but the majority of the top analysts maintain that LULU is going to become very profitable in the long-run. The analysts at Zacks believe that the company has severely underpenetrated the European and Asian markets. However, the recent branding efforts by LULU indicate that this might be changing very soon.
Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) experienced a trade volume of 115 shares, during the September 21 session, to close at a share price of $53.98, after reporting a surge of 2.02% in terms of its stock value.
