Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings Thursday, but cut its full-year earnings guidance, citing a “dynamic macroenvironment.”
As the company navigates tariffs and fears about a slowing U.S. economy, CEO Calvin McDonald said in a news release that “we intend to leverage our strong financial position and competitive advantages to play offense, while we continue to invest in the growth opportunities in front of us.”
He said on a conference call with analysts that he is “not happy” with U.S. growth and said U.S. consumers are being cautious and intentional about their buying decisions.
Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank added on the call that the brand is planning to take “strategic price increases, looking item by item across our assortment,” to mitigate the effect of tariffs.
“It will be price increases on a small portion of our assortments, and they will be modest in nature,” she said, adding that those hikes will start rolling out toward the second half of the current quarter and into the third quarter.
Shares of the apparel company plunged about 20% on Friday.
Here’s how the company did for its first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ended May 4, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $2.60 vs. $2.58 expected
- Revenue: $2.37 billion vs. $2.36 billion expected
The company cut its full-year earnings guidance. It expects its full-year earnings per share to be between $14.58 to $14.78. Previously, it expected full-year earnings per share to be in the range of $14.95 to $15.15 for the year. Analysts anticipated earnings per share of $14.89, according to LSEG.
Lululemon’s report comes after a string of retailers reduced or withdrew their guidance and said they would hike prices because of uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump‘s tariff regime. Retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch and Macy’s slashed their profit outlooks, while others, including American Eagle Outfitters pulled their full-year guidance altogether.
Among Lululemon’s rivals in the athleticwear category specifically, Gap, which owns athleisure brand Athleta, reported last week that it expects tariffs to impact its business by $100 million to $150 million. Nike told CNBC last month it would begin raising prices on a wide range of products, though it did not specify whether tariffs were the reason for the hikes.
On Thursday’s earnings call, McDonald acknowledged the uncertainty that tariffs have brought on the business, but said he believes the brand is “better positioned than most” to navigate the current environment.
Lululemon reported net income for the fiscal first quarter of $314 million, or $2.60 per share, compared with a net income of $321 million, or $2.54 per share, a year earlier.
First-quarter revenue rose to $2.37 billion, up from about $2.21 billion during the same period in 2024.
Lululemon expects second-quarter revenue to total between $2.54 billion and $2.56 billion. It also anticipates full-year fiscal 2025 revenue to be $11.15 billion to $11.3 billion — unchanged from its last forecast. Wall Street analysts were expecting revenue of $2.56 billion for the second quarter and $11.24 billion for the full year, according to LSEG.
The activewear company expects to post earnings per share in the range of $2.85 to $2.90 for the second quarter, compared to Wall Street’s expectation of $3.29, according to LSEG.
Frank said on the earnings call that the company’s outlook assumes the current 30% incremental tariff on China and an incremental 10% levy on the remaining countries where the retailer sources from.
During 2024, 40% of Lululemon’s products were manufactured in Vietnam, 17% in Cambodia, 11% in Sri Lanka, 11% in Indonesia, 7% in Bangladesh and the remainder in other regions, according to the company’s annual report. Lululemon does not own or operate any manufacturing facilities and relies on suppliers to produce and provide fabrics for its products, according to the report.
Comparable sales rose 1% year over year for the quarter, compared to the 3% Wall Street was anticipating, according to StreetAccount. That number includes a 2% decrease in the Americas and a 6% increase internationally.
Gross margin was 58.3%, ahead of the 57.7% that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
However, Frank said on the earnings call that Lululemon expects full-year gross margins to decrease approximately 110 basis points versus 2024, down from its prior guidance of a 60-basis point drop. She said the difference is driven predominantly by increased tariffs.
As of Thursday’s close, LULU stock had dropped about 13% year-to-date.
Read the original article here