Lululemon ($LULU) stock is creeping around an all-time high, and the company's data is reflecting positive trends - you just have to do a little digging first to get there.
Normally when we see a massive spike in discounted items it could be a signal that a company is facing financial pressure, or that it has overstocked. For Lululemon, the chart above clearly reflects the latter when we check out the data. Of the 400+ products that are discounted, the majority (more than 60%) comes from products that are older - and no one wants to be caught dead in Savasana in last season's stretch pants. Lululemon isn't being terribly shy about the overstock - it named the sale, the 'We Made Too Much' sale.
Lululemon isn't cutting its "good" products' prices, it's getting rid of stuff it doesn't want taking up space in the store room.
Hiring at Lululemon is closing in on an recent high as the company's stock is doing the same. Job postings have risen about 23% year-to-date, and the company's shares have appreciated nearly 50% so far this year - putting Lululemon well ahead of market benchmarks.
Social media mentions for Lululemon aren't quite what they used to be, as our last chart reflects. We can track Facebook ($FB) Talking About Count, which reflects a dip in mentions on the social network for Lululemon. However, from 2019 to this August (not shown) Lululemon Instragram followers more than doubled, from 1.44 million to nearly 3 million. So a bit of a mixed bag on social.
Lululemon will announce earnings Thursday Sept. 5; analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research are looking for EPS of $0.89.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
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