Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: I am interested in your take on lululemon. Thanks.

Article Excerpt

lululemon athletica Inc., $52.11, symbol LLL on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 108.0 million; Market cap: $5.6 billion; www.lululemon.com), is a Vancouver-based designer and seller of yoga-inspired athletic wear and accessories. Part of its brand image is that it doesn’t capitalize the first letters in the words making up its corporate name. lululemon first sold shares to the public at $9 each, and began trading on Toronto in July 2007. (Note: All per-share figures adjusted for a 2-for-1 stock split in July 2011.) The shares also trade in the U.S. on the Nasdaq market under the symbol LULU. Dennis “Chip” Wilson founded lululemon in 1998, after noticing that more women were taking up yoga and other physical activities. Wilson had 20 years of experience making surfing and snowboard clothing. He believed that the all-cotton fabrics then used for yoga were inappropriate. When Wilson opened the first lululemon store in the Kitsilano Beach area of Vancouver in 2000, he positioned its staff not…