Lululemon beats 4Q profit forecasts

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) _ Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) on Tuesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $119.8 million.

On a per-share basis, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company said it had profit of 88 cents. Earnings, adjusted for pretax expenses and restructuring costs, were $1.33 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.27 per share.

The athletic apparel maker posted revenue of $928.8 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $258.7 million, or $1.90 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.65 billion.

For the current quarter ending in May, Lululemon expects its per-share earnings to range from 44 cents to 46 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $612 million to $617 million for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $585.4 million.

Lululemon expects full-year earnings in the range of $3 to $3.08 per share, with revenue ranging from $2.99 billion to $3.02 billion.

Lululemon shares have climbed slightly since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $78.75, a climb of 23 per cent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LULU at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LULU