Lululemon Athletica Inc. Shares Jump In Improved Outlook

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) jumped in early trading after the apparel retailer boosted its fourth-quarter outlook, citing strong holiday sales and improving trends.Lululemon changed hands recently at $62.25, up more than 6 percent.The Vancouver-based apparel retailer also got upgraded to Neutral, from Under Perform by Sterne Agee Sam Poser. The same analyst had downgraded Lululemon to Under Perform, from Neutral less than two months ago, citing slow sales growth. On Monday, Lululemon increased its fourth-quarter earnings prediction to between $0.71 cents and $0.73 cents a share, on sales of $570 million to $585 million.The company also forecast fourth-quarter same-store sales growth of between 6 percent and 7 percent.The company's outlook seems to be improving; During the combined first three quarters of 2014, same-store sales fell 4 percentIn the third quarter ended Nov. 3, sales grew 10 percent to $419.4 million while same-store sales increased 3 percent. Previously the company forecast fourth-quarter earnings of $0.65 cent to $0.69 cents a share.Analysts on average expected fourth-quarter earnings of $0.72 cents a share on sales of $583.89.Chief Executive Laurent Potdevin said the company will continue to improve its business "with the expectation that we will begin to see operating margin leverage in 2016.” Lululemon last week named Stuart C. Haselden chief financial officer effective Feb. 2.The company told investors on Dec. 11 that during the combined first three quarters of 2014, same-store sales fell 4 percent.