Lululemon shares get lift after Q1 results

Shares of apparel maker Lululemon Athletica Inc. rose almost five per cent on Wednesday after the company reported first-quarter results that met analysts' expectations.

The company's stock gained $3.34 US on Nasdaq to close at $71.48 US.

Earlier in the day, Vancouver-based Lululemon said it made $45.3 million, or 33 cents a share in the quarter.

After adjusting for non-recurring gains, the company made a profit of 30 cents a shares. That met the average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Lululemon said its revenue for the quarter was $495.5 million. A dozen analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected the company to post revenue of $488 million.

"We are pleased with our first quarter performance, delivering strong sales results and gross margin that exceeded expectations," Laurent Potdevin, Lulemon's CEO, said in a release. "We finished the quarter with our inventory levels rebalanced and on track to achieve our goals for the year."

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $505 million to $515 million for the current quarter, which concludes in August.  Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $514.3 million.

Full-year earnings are expected to be $2.05 to $2.15 per share, the company said, with revenue of $2.31 billion to $2.35
billion.