Investopedia: Lululemon Slips During Its Highwire Act

You can think of Canadian specialty athletic clothing retailer Lululemon Athletica (Nasdaq: LULU) and the Street's reaction to this quarter, in this way: When you're just walking along the street and have a slight stumble or slip, it's no big deal; nobody notices, nobody cares and you probably don't even break stride. Now, imagine having that same stumble when you're on a wire fifty feet above the ground, with thousands of people staring up at you; the consequences of a mistake are a bit higher.

Some Spots Show Up in the Third Quarter 

Lululemon has gotten this far, largely on the basis of promising good growth and then delivering even better results. Not this time, though. Although 16% comps growth would be a level of performance that the CEOs of Gap (NYSE: GPS), American Eagle (NYSE: AEO) or Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) would sell a family member to get, it's not going to satisfy the Lululemon crowd, when the last quarter's performance was 20%. Moreover, sales growth of 31% was quite nice, but the company actually missed the average sell-side guess by about $5 million.

Read more here:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Lululemon-Slips-During-Its-Highwire-Act-LULU-GPS-NKE-LTD-ADDYY-AEO-KSS-ANF1202.aspx

Investopedia: Nike Still Winning

It seems a little strange that footwear and athletic apparel maker Nike (NYSE:NKE) never quite gets the same respect or admiration that Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) or Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) get from investors and business historians. After all, Nike started at almost the same time as Wal-Mart and is every bit as global (if not more) in its reach and influence.


Perhaps even more to the point for investors, Nike continues to grow at a pace that most other giant consumer products companies struggle to match. With Nike arguably having room for improvement and expansion in multiple areas, there would be seem to be no immediate cause to think Nike cannot continue to grow for many years to come.

A Strong End to the Fiscal Year
Nike reported that sales rose 14% to close out its fiscal year. In topping even the high end of sales estimates, Nike saw footwear sales growth of 19%, apparel growth of near 8%, and equipment growth of 5%. While sales were notably strong in China and emerging markets (and these markets are collectively as important to Nike as Europe), North America was no slouch at 21% reported growth.

To read the full piece, please click below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Nike-Still-Winning-NKE-FL-FINL-UA-LULU-HBI-COLM0628.aspx