- If you are wondering whether lululemon athletica's current share price really reflects what the business is worth, starting with a clear look at valuation can help you frame that question properly.
- The stock last closed at US$145.85, with returns of an 11.3% decline over 7 days, a 21.2% decline over 30 days, a 30.8% decline year to date, and a 48.5% decline over the past year, which has likely shifted how many investors think about its potential and risk.
- Recent headlines around lululemon athletica have focused on its position in the premium athletic apparel market and how competition, consumer trends, and brand strength are shaping sentiment. This backdrop helps explain why such large share price moves can occur when expectations change, even without new financial results on the day.
- Simply Wall St currently gives lululemon athletica a value score of 4/6, based on how it screens across six separate undervaluation checks. The next step is to see what different valuation methods say about that score and then look at an even better way to bring those signals together by the end of this article.
Find out why lululemon athletica's -48.5% return over the last year is lagging behind its peers.
Approach 1: lululemon athletica Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis
A Discounted Cash Flow, or DCF, model projects a company’s future cash flows and then discounts them back to today’s dollars to estimate what the entire business could be worth right now.
For lululemon athletica, the model used is a 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity approach, based on cash flow projections in US$. The latest twelve month free cash flow is about $885.8 million. Analyst inputs are used for the early years, then Simply Wall St extrapolates further out, with projections such as $1,192.6 million in 2026, $1,179.5 million in 2027 and $1,042.0 million in 2029. By 2035, the extrapolated free cash flow figure is $1,022.6 million.
After discounting these projected cash flows back to today, the model estimates an intrinsic value of $135.15 per share. Compared with the recent share price of $145.85, this implies the stock is about 7.9% above the DCF estimate. This places it within a reasonable range of the model’s fair value output rather than looking clearly cheap or expensive.
Result: ABOUT RIGHT
lululemon athletica is fairly valued according to our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), but this can change at a moment's notice. Track the value in your watchlist or portfolio and be alerted on when to act.
Approach 2: lululemon athletica Price vs Earnings
For a profitable company like lululemon athletica, the P/E ratio is a useful quick check because it links what you pay directly to the earnings the business is already generating. It helps you judge how much the market is willing to pay for each dollar of profit.
What counts as a “normal” or “fair” P/E depends on factors such as expected earnings growth and risk. Higher growth and lower perceived risk can justify a higher multiple, while slower growth or higher risk usually call for a lower one.
lululemon athletica currently trades on a P/E of 10.68x. That sits below the Luxury industry average of 18.31x and also below a peer group average of 33.04x. Simply Wall St’s Fair Ratio for lululemon athletica is 18.02x, which is the P/E level suggested by a model that incorporates the company’s earnings growth profile, profit margins, industry, market cap and risk characteristics.
This Fair Ratio is more tailored than a simple comparison with peers or the broader industry, because it adjusts for the specific mix of growth, risk and profitability for lululemon athletica. With the current P/E of 10.68x sitting below the Fair Ratio of 18.02x, the shares screen as undervalued on this metric.
Result: UNDERVALUED
P/E ratios tell one story, but what if the real opportunity lies elsewhere? Start investing in legacies, not executives. Discover our 20 top founder-led companies.
Upgrade Your Decision Making: Choose your lululemon athletica Narrative
Earlier we mentioned that there is an even better way to understand valuation, so this is where Narratives come in as a simple way to connect your view of lululemon athletica with the numbers you see on screen.
A Narrative is your clear story about the company, paired with your own fair value, revenue, earnings and margin assumptions, so you are not just looking at ratios in isolation but tying them to what you think the business will look like in a few years.
On Simply Wall St, Narratives sit inside the Community page and turn that story into a financial forecast and a fair value estimate, then continuously compare that fair value to the current share price so you can judge for yourself whether lululemon athletica looks attractive, fully priced or expensive on your assumptions.
Because Narratives update automatically when fresh information such as earnings, tariff news or CEO changes is added to the platform, you can see how your view might stack up against others, from more cautious fair values near US$117 per share to more optimistic cases above US$400, and decide which version of the story best fits your own expectations and risk tolerance.
Do you think there's more to the story for lululemon athletica? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying!
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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