Lululemon Athletica Jumps on Q3 Beat and Raise

Lululemon Athletica is up nearly 9% to $44.00 in thin pre-market activity, following its report of better-than-expected Q3 earnings of $7.57 million, or $0.11/share, compared to $0.02/share last year and analyst estimates of $0.08/share. Sales soared 84% to $66.2M, also beating estimates of $63M. Lululemon raised its full-year EPS outlook to $0.40 to $0.42, from $0.30 to $0.33 previously. Analysts were expecting $0.37/share, on average, according to Reuters Estimates. Gross margin improved to 54.2%, compared to 52.1% last year. "We are very pleased to have delivered another quarter of strong sales and earnings growth. We believe that our performance during the third quarter further demonstrates that our innovative product offering, unique culture and distinct community-based marketing approach creates brand loyalty and continues to attract healthy and active-minded individuals to the lululemon brand. Based on the strong results in both our comp stores as well as our new stores, we are extremely excited about our future growth prospects," commented CEO Robert Meers in a statement. Lululemon said it plans to open 10 stores during Q4 in North America and plans 30 to 35 new openings in fiscal 2008. Shares of Lulu gained 4.9% to $40.50 on Wednesday.

Sources: Press release, MarketWatch
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Stocks to watch: LULU. Competitors: NKE, UA, ADDYY.PK

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