Lululemon (LULU) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Lululemon (LULU) closed the most recent trading day at $262.51, moving +1.27% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.47%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.87%.

Heading into today, shares of the athletic apparel maker had gained 6.89% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Discretionary sector's loss of 2.04% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.43% in that time.

LULU will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, LULU is projected to report earnings of $2.25 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 21.62%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion, up 17.86% from the year-ago period.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for LULU. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. LULU is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Looking at its valuation, LULU is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 45.1. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 12.69, which means LULU is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, LULU's PEG ratio is currently 2.39. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Textile - Apparel industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.19 as of yesterday's close.

The Textile - Apparel industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, putting it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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