On Sept. 8, apparel and fitness company Lululemon Athletica (LULU 1.43%) reported financial results for the second quarter of 2021. The company beat expectations and raised its guidance, much to the market's delight.
In this video from Motley Fool Backstage Pass, recorded on Sept. 9, Fool contributor Jon Quast breaks the second-quarter financial results down to fellow contributor Jason Hall.
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Jason Hall: How about this? Jon, let's start off with Lululemon. I think this is pretty popular stock across the service. I think we saw a spiffy-pop yesterday. Did we see a spiffy-pop yesterday? Am I making that up?
Jon Quast: Well, I didn't because I have -- small "f" -- foolishly never bought Lululemon.
Hall: I understand. Same.
Quast: But [laughs] it's good company and what are we up today? 10.5% -- very good move. I think we are hitting all-time highs because as Jason alluded, they reported earnings yesterday and the market loved it, and with good reason.
I am going to try to do something here that I've never done. We're going to try to look at a slideshow that I prepared for you here. How do we do this? You guys see that?
Hall: Look at that, holy cow.
Lou Whiteman: We got it.
Hall: Holy cow, Jon Quast, success.
Quast: That is pretty fancy. That's about as fancy as I can get.
Hall: You're doing good so far.
Quast: Lululemon Athletica is the full name. This was the second quarter of 2021. We're going to start off with the top line here.
This is what they reported yesterday afternoon. Revenue of $1.5 billion. That is up 61% year over year. Now, my immediate reaction was, that is a very high growth rate for apparel company, sales must have been down last year. That is not the case. Revenue was actually up 2% last year, so this is not a case of an easy comp. They absolutely smashed it.
They beat their guidance here. We're the Beat and Raise show. I always like to incorporate this. They beat their own guidance, so management had guided for revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.33 billion, so that is a pretty substantial beat there with $1.5 [billion] that they actually delivered.
They also beat expectations. As you all know, Wall Street analysts are never content with the guidance that management puts out, they've got to come up with their own numbers. Analysts on average expected $1.33 billion in revenue, the highest estimate was $1.39 [billion]. Lululemon beat on both of those counts. Top line was looking good.
Down to the bottom line, we got earnings per share. Now, this is diluted, so this includes all shares that are out there. Earnings per share of $1.59, that is up 141% year over year. Now this does come with an asterisk because earnings were down last year. As they shuffled their organization, did some things, their profit took about a 30% hit last year, so this earnings per share looks a little bit better than it would otherwise, but still very strong earnings-per-share growth.
This beat their guidance as well. Management guide for earnings per share of a $1.05 to $1.10. Very substantial beat there, as you can see. Also beat expectations. Analysts expected earnings per share of $1.19 on average, $1.36 on the high end. Lululemon, even the most optimistic viewers out there, smashed those expectations.
Turning to third-quarter guidance, they guided for revenue of $1.4 [billion] to $1.43 billion. This is substantial growth over last year when they had $1.1 billion in revenue. They also raised -- I gave it away -- full-year revenue guidance of $6.19 billion to $6.26 [billion]. That is a raise from their previous guidance, right there you can read the numbers $5.8 [billion] to $5.9 [billion]. They beat and raised their guidance. Let me stop this -- very good quarter from Lululemon.
Hall: Great quarter. I'm going to do a screen share here real quick, too. Our good buddy David Gardner posted this this morning: "Looking very spiffy Lululemon this morning." Gained $44 today. First recommended in Rule Breakers in 2010, just under $39. That is a very good day. But it's a reminder. Buy great businesses. Continue to hold them for a long time. Things go well.
