Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU)

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 73,786 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 106% compared to the average volume of 35,735 put options.

Insider Activity

In other Lululemon Athletica news, Director Martha A. M. Morfitt purchased 700 shares of Lululemon Athletica stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were bought at an average price of $389.29 per share, for a total transaction of $272,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,645. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LULU. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lululemon Athletica by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,692,969 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $4,955,918,000 after purchasing an additional 2,369,119 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Lululemon Athletica by 0.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,633,648 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $959,144,000 after purchasing an additional 18,147 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Lululemon Athletica by 29.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,934,683 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $746,034,000 after purchasing an additional 437,069 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Lululemon Athletica by 20.0% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,865,091 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $719,198,000 after purchasing an additional 310,347 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lululemon Athletica by 3.2% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,659,260 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $603,418,000 after purchasing an additional 51,572 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.20% of the company’s stock.

Lululemon Athletica Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of LULU opened at $352.47 on Friday. Lululemon Athletica has a 52-week low of $326.93 and a 52-week high of $516.39. The company has a market capitalization of $44.41 billion, a PE ratio of 28.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $420.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $438.41.

Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The apparel retailer reported $5.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.00 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.19 billion. Lululemon Athletica had a return on equity of 44.41% and a net margin of 16.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lululemon Athletica will post 14.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LULU. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Lululemon Athletica from $300.00 to $240.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Lululemon Athletica from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Lululemon Athletica from $495.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Wedbush cut their price target on shares of Lululemon Athletica from $548.00 to $492.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Lululemon Athletica from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $430.00 to $415.00 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lululemon Athletica has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $483.61.

Lululemon Athletica Company Profile

Lululemon Athletica Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, distributes, and retails athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories under the lululemon brand for women and men. It offers pants, shorts, tops, and jackets for healthy lifestyle, such as yoga, running, training, and other activities. It also provides fitness-inspired accessories.