Major benchmarks traded in a narrow range Friday but ended the week with a session that was mostly positive. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) managed to finish with small gains. Energy and materials were the strongest sectors, while big technology stocks were a drag on the market.
As for individual stocks, lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) jumped on strong sales gains in the second quarter, while CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD) slumped despite reporting rapid top-line growth.
Strong sales across the board for Lululemon
Lululemon continued its recent trend of beating earnings expectations when it reported strong sales growth in the second quarter, and shares stretched upward by 7.7%. Revenue rose 22% to $883.4 million, blowing past the company’s guidance of $825 million to $835 million. Earnings per share grew 35% to $0.96, compared with the 23% growth the apparel specialist had said it expected.
Lululemon has increased its store count by 11% since the period a year ago and also saw strong gains in sales by existing stores and online. Comparable sales in physical stores jumped 11%, and e-commerce sales grew 31% in constant dollars and now account for 24.6% of total revenue. International expansion is helping fuel Lululemon’s sales growth; revenue in Europe increased 35%, while Asia-Pacific was up 33%.
Looking forward, Lululemon raised its EPS guidance for the full year by $0.12 to a range of $4.63 to $4.70, despite additional expenses related to new tariffs and higher air freight costs.
Nearly doubled revenue not enough for CrowdStrike investors
Newly public cloud security specialist CrowdStrike reported Q2 results that beat its earlier guidance, but concerns about growing competition led to a sell-off of the stock, which fell 12.7%. Revenue nearly doubled, soaring 94% to $108.1 million, and the company lost $0.18 per share on an adjusted basis. In July, CrowdStrike said to expect a loss between $0.23 and $0.24 per share on revenue of $103 million to $104 million.
CrowdStrike’s rapid top-line growth was powered by a huge jump in subscribers. The company gained 730 new subscription customers in the quarter, a 24% increase from just three months ago. CrowdStrike added $59.2 million in new annual recurring revenue in Q2 for a total of $423.8 million, representing 104% year-over-year growth.
Analysts on the conference call questioned the company about VMWare’s planned acquisition of Carbon Black and the threat from Palo Alto Networks. Founder and CEO George Kurtz cited huge customer demand and acceptance of CrowdStrike’s products, points that would seem to be backed up by the quarter’s results, but apparently not sufficient for investors in the hot growth stock today.
