Lululemon ($LULU) has been one of the hottest brands of 2019 even in the thick of the retail apocalypse. Now, new trends found in discounting, hiring, and foot traffic data suggest Lululemon may be on its way to new heights if it can top earnings expectations.
No Freebies!
Since Thanksgiving — the onset of holiday shopping — Lululemon has offered a lower discount to shoppers, judging by our data that compares retail to sale price in order to calculate discounting trends from vendors. Last year, when Lululemon did the same thing, it correlated to an explosive stock performance and the shares gained more than 63% throughout 2018.
In the prior year, Lululemon made discounts in the middle of summer, which correlated to a far less impressive appreciation — still, gains, of more than 20%.
Job Postings on the Upswing
Lululemon may not be in the throes of a hiring spree, but its job-postings chart still reflects good news. Year-over-year, job postings have risen about 15%. Over a similar timeframe, measured by its annual regulatory filings, the company has also built up its real estate footprint about 10%, growing total store count to 440.
Keep 'Em Comin
Finally we have Lululemon's Facebook ($FB) Were Here Count: this measures how many check-ins, mobile device shares, and photo-location tags are made in a place related to a business with a Facebook account. In this case, it reflects that engagement isn't just up; it's accelerating as Lululemon opens more stores.
For this year, Facebook Were Here Count for Lululemon is up more than 13%. While this data may not be fully comprehensive, it can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales, given how widely-used Facebook is on mobile devices.
Lululemon will report its Q1 2019 earnings Wednesday June 12 after the close, and analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research are looking for EPS of $0.71 per share. So far in 2019 shares are up 33%