Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Lululemon (LULU)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Lululemon’s (LULU) Q2 2025 earnings call.
Lululemon (LULU) is a maker of premium athletic and lifestyle apparel, best known for yoga, running, training, and performance wear. The brand built its reputation on fabric quality and fit, cultivating a deeply loyal guest base and a membership program that now counts about 30 million members. With nearly 800 global stores and a fast-growing digital channel, Lululemon serves a wide demographic, from high-performance athletes to casual wear consumers, and provides insight into the health of discretionary spending, activewear trends, and brand-driven loyalty in retail. Q2 EPS beat expectations at $3.10, but revenue of $2.5B grew just 6.5% YoY and fell short of estimates, leading to a full-year outlook cut. Management blamed tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption (~220 bps margin hit, ~$240M) and US weakness, where lounge and casual categories (~40% of mix) are showing fatigue. Performance apparel remains strong, taking share despite industry declines, and new styles like Daydrift and BeCalm performed well. Lululemon plans to lift newness from 23% to 35% by Spring ’26, supported by a new Chief AI & Technology Officer to accelerate design and personalization. International growth showed China up 25% and new market entries in Milan, Turkey, Belgium, and India are planned. Shares fell as much as 20% on 9/5 on the weaker outlook, with shares now trading at their lowest level since March 2020…
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 9/5/25 – Out of the Blue
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“Change before you’re forced to change.” – Roger Goodell
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Futures are in rally mode this morning ahead of the Non-Farm Payrolls report at 8:30, while treasury yields are at their lows for the week. The rally in US stocks follows what has been a strong morning in Europe, as well as some solid gains in Asia.
Earnings season may be mostly in the rearview mirror, but some reports are still trickling in, and last night saw a very disappointing report from Lululemon (LULU). While the athletic apparel maker reported better-than-expected earnings on inline revenues, full-year earnings guidance was slashed by 10%. While the stock was only trading at 14 times earnings heading into the report, investors are not taking kindly to the lowered guidance. In pre-market trading, shares of LULU are down roughly 20% to their lowest level since March 2020. Earlier this year, the stock was trading as high as $420. It’s at $166 now!
Taking into account this morning’s decline, LULU now ranks as the S&P 500’s worst-performing stock on a YTD basis and is one of just four stocks in the index that have lost more than half of their value. The other three are The Trade Desk (TTD), Centene (CNC), and Gartner (IT). Along with those four stocks, another 14 are down over 30%, including Deckers Outdoors (DECK), Align Technology (ALGN), and Chipotle (CMG). There was a time when these stocks were among the biggest highfliers, but nowhere is the phrase “what have you done for me lately” more applicable than in the stock market.
LULU’s decline has been painful, but it has also been part of a broader decline in athletic apparel companies. While none of them are down anywhere nearly as much as LULU, shares of Nike (NKE), Under Armour (UA), and VF Corp (VFC) are all in the red YTD. With a “workout” these days now involving nothing more than a jab in the thigh, you don’t need yoga pants and a pair of sneakers to do that!
Enough of the bad news. If we’re going to dwell on the worst-performing stocks in the market this year, we have to give equal time to the top performers, so the table below shows the 15 stocks in the S&P 500 that are up at least 50% YTD. You may think that the market is being led entirely by tech, but six sectors are represented on the list of the 15 biggest winners. Tech is tied for the lead in terms of representation, but four stocks from the Industrials sector are also represented, including GE Vernona (GEV) and General Electric (GE). As hard as it would have been to imagine a couple of years ago seeing LULU, DECK, ALGN, and CMG on the list of biggest losers, it would have been just as hard to think a stock with “GE” in its name would ever be on the biggest winners list, let alone two!
At the top of the list of biggest winners were four stocks that have already doubled this year – Palantir (PLTR), Seagate (STX), Newmont (NEM), and Western Digital (WDC). Seeing PLTR at the top of the list isn’t surprising, but STX, NEM, and WDC? Where did they come from? Goldminers aren’t exactly the sexiest stocks in the market, and when most investors think of tech stocks, STX and WDC are probably two of the last stocks that come to mind. It just goes to show that the biggest winners in the market often come from places seemingly out of the blue where the fewest investors are looking.
The Closer – Labor Data Day, Trade, ISM – 9/4/25
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, after starting out with a review of the latest claims and trade data (pages 1 and 2), we review more labor market readings in the form of Indeed job postings (pages 3 and 4) ahead of tomorrow’s nonfarm payrolls report. We then review the latest service PMIs and offer one final note on the confirmation hearing of Stephan Miran (page 5).
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Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: American Eagle (AEO)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers American Eagle’s (AEO) Q2 2025 earnings call.
American Eagle (AEO) is a US-based specialty retailer known for its American Eagle and Aerie brands, catering primarily to teens and young adults. American Eagle focuses on casual apparel, with denim as its core category, while Aerie has built a strong following in intimates, activewear, and loungewear. The company serves a broad customer base through its 1,000+ stores and digital channels, with campaigns and collaborations that often tap into cultural icons, giving insight into consumer demand trends, fashion cycles, and the spending patterns of younger shoppers. AEO’s ability to drive brand buzz through celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Travis Kelce makes it a barometer for how pop culture and fashion intersect. AEO posted $1.28B in revenue, its second-highest Q2 ever, with traffic up across brands. Aerie rebounded with 3% comps, fueled by intimates and OFFLINE activewear, while American Eagle stabilized with strength in women’s jeans, dresses, and men’s tops. Marketing campaigns with Sweeney and Kelce generated 40B impressions and 700K+ new customers, boosting August comps into positive territory and driving the best Labor Day in company history. Tariffs loom as an approximate $70M H2 headwind, mitigated through sourcing shifts and vendor negotiations. AEO shares surged more than 35% on 9/4 after beating EPS and revenue estimates…
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Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Dollar Tree (DLTR)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Dollar Tree’s (DLTR) Q2 2025 earnings call.
Dollar Tree (DLTR) is a discount retailer operating thousands of small-box stores that focus on low-price consumables, seasonal goods, and discretionary items. Its hallmark “everything for $1.25” model has evolved into a multi-price strategy, now offering items up to $5. The company serves a broad demographic, including budget-conscious families, college students, and increasingly higher-income households seeking value and convenience. Dollar Tree provides insight into consumer trade-down behavior, resilience under cost pressures, and shifting retail dynamics in a tariff-sensitive environment. The company delivered Q2 sales of $4.6B (+12.3% YoY) with comps up 6.5%, balanced between traffic (+3%) and ticket (+3.4%). EPS of $0.77 topped expectations as tariff impacts were delayed into later quarters. The company highlighted the rollout of its expanded multi-price assortment, now in 3,600 stores and on track for 5,000 by year-end, which is drawing more $100K+ households, two-thirds of new customers. Uber Eats integration at 8,500 stores provides access to 25M younger, incremental shoppers. Tariffs remain volatile (China ~30%, Vietnam/India higher), but management cited its “five levers” of mitigation. Strong supply chain execution and improved store conditions set the stage for holiday readiness. Despite better-than-expected results, the stock fell 8.4% on 9/3…
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Bespoke Market Calendar — September 2025
Please click the image below to view our September 2025 market calendar. This calendar includes the S&P 500’s historical average percentage change and average intraday chart pattern for each trading day during the upcoming month. It also includes market holidays and options expiration dates plus the dates of key economic indicator releases. Click here to view Bespoke’s premium membership options.
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 9/4/25 – Yields Decline
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“If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.” – Mark Spitz
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
Equity futures are skewed to the upside as yields rise, but a weaker-than-expected ADP Employment report at 8:15 has put a modest damper on the tone in equities. The 8:30 batch of data showed that Unit Labor Costs were weaker than expected, while Non-Farm Productivity came in better than expected. Jobless claims were mixed, with initial claims rising slightly while continuing claims saw a modest decline.
In Asia, most equity indices in the region were higher, with Japan leading the way (+1.5%), but China bucked the trend and traded lower on reports that the government is considering restrictions on stock trading to reduce speculation. European equities are also higher this morning, with France being the exception, following a sharp decline in shares of Sanofi.
As concerns over an uptick in inflation continue to simmer (even as employment slows), raising questions about how much the Fed will realistically be able to cut rates, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury doesn’t seem overly worried. Since peaking early in the year at just over 4.8%, yields have been steadily trending lower with a series of lower highs since Spring. During this period, there has been a floor at the 4.20% level, but this morning that level is being tested again as the yield briefly moved below 4.2%.
The drop in yields has also occurred against a backdrop of chatter over whether global investors were looking to exit US assets. In global fixed income markets, that doesn’t appear to be the case. While the 10-year yield has declined 37 basis points (bps) YTD, the sovereign 10-year yield of every other G7 country has increased anywhere from 5 bps in Italy to 51 bps in Japan.
In global equity markets, US exceptionalism hasn’t been as evident. While the S&P 500 is up 9.6% YTD, the benchmark equity index of every other G7 country is up by a larger amount. Japan is the closest in terms of performance to the US (+13.1%) while Italy and Germany are both up over 30%!
While US equities entered September right near all-time highs with healthy gains for the year, investor sentiment remains skeptical. The latest sentiment survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) showed a decline in bullish sentiment to 32.7% while bearish sentiment increased to 43.4%. The results pushed the bull-bear spread further into negative territory, marking the fifth straight week that bears outnumbered bulls in what has been a relatively consistent trend of negative sentiment this year.
The chart below shows the percentage of weeks by year when the weekly AAII survey had a positive bull-bear spread. So far this year, the spread has been positive just 28% of the time, which stands in stark contrast to last year, when the bull-bear spread was positive 96% of the time, tied only with 1995 for the most ever in a year. If the current pace of negative readings continues, it will be just the fourth year that the bull-bear spread was positive less than 30% of the time, with the only other years being 1990, 2008, and 2022. It’s understandable to see negative sentiment in bear market/recessionary environments like 1990, 2008, and 2022, but what’s the excuse this year?
The Triple Play Report — 9/4/25
An earnings triple play is a stock that reports earnings and manages to 1) beat analyst EPS estimates, 2) beat analyst sales estimates, and 3) raise forward guidance. You can read more about “triple plays” at Investopedia.com where they’ve given Bespoke credit for popularizing the term. We like triple plays as an indication that a company’s business is firing on all cylinders, with better-than-expected results and an improving outlook. A triple play is indicative of positive “fundamental momentum” instead of pure fundamentals, and there are always plenty of names with both high and low valuations on our quarterly list.
Bespoke’s Triple Play Report highlights companies that have recently reported earnings triple plays, and it features commentary from management on triple-play conference calls, company descriptions and analysis, and price charts. Bespoke’s Triple Play Report is available at the Bespoke Institutional level only. You can sign up for Bespoke Institutional now and receive a 14-day trial to read this week’s Triple Play Report, which features 20 new stocks. To sign up, choose either the monthly or annual checkout link below:
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Pure Storage (PSTG) is an example of a company that recently reported an earnings triple play after the close on 8/27. On a streak of ten EPS and revenue beats, the stock rallied 32% on 8/28 in reaction to this quarter’s triple play. That rally brought the stock to a new all-time high!
Here’s how AI describes the company: Pure Storage (PSTG) is a data storage company that develops all-flash hardware systems and cloud-based software to help enterprises manage rapidly growing volumes of data. Its core platform runs on the Purity operating system, which standardizes and simplifies storage across block, file, and object formats while enabling features like automated upgrades and data reduction. The company sells both physical arrays such as FlashArray for high-performance workloads and FlashBlade for analytics and AI, as well as subscription models like Evergreen//One, which delivers storage on demand with predictable costs and built-in refreshes. Pure has also expanded into cloud-native infrastructure through Cloud Block Store and Portworx, which allow customers to run applications seamlessly across public clouds and containerized environments like Kubernetes. More recently, the company introduced its Enterprise Data Cloud architecture, a framework designed to unify data management across global data estates, reduce IT complexity, and improve efficiency in areas such as power consumption and cooling. With customers spanning Fortune 500 firms, hyperscalers, and cloud-first enterprises, Pure Storage positions itself as a leader in modernizing data centers for AI, analytics, and next-generation application development.
Pure Storage posted strong Q2 FY26 results, with revenue up 13% to $861 million. Nearly half of sales now come from subscriptions, which grew 15% to $415 million, showing that customers are steadily moving away from one-time hardware purchases toward ongoing service contracts. Annual recurring revenue rose 18% to $1.8 billion, and the company’s backlog of contracted sales reached $2.8 billion, signaling confidence in long-term demand. Growth was broad, but international markets stood out with a 26% gain compared to 7% in the US. Customers continued to choose PSTG’s higher-end systems like FlashArray//XL, which lifted product gross margin to 68% and total gross margin to 72.1%. The company also recognized its first revenue from Meta’s deployment of DirectFlash technology, a high-margin deal expected to scale to multiple exabytes. Over 300 new customers were added, bringing Fortune 500 penetration to 62%. Management raised its full-year revenue outlook to 14% growth, citing a healthier pipeline of large deals, strong demand for FlashBlade in AI and analytics, and growing adoption of its storage-as-a-service offerings.
Looking at the snapshot below from our Earnings Explorer, Pure Storage (PSTG) has been a strong triple play name over the past several years. Since the beginning on 2021, the company has reported ten triple plays with just one revenue miss in 2023. This quarter’s positive stock reaction is also its best since its 2015 IPO.
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Bespoke Investment Group, LLC believes all information contained in these reports to be accurate, but we do not guarantee its accuracy. None of the information in these reports or any opinions expressed constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities. This is not personalized advice. Investors should do their own research and/or work with an investment professional when making portfolio decisions. As always, past performance of any investment is not a guarantee of future results. Bespoke representatives or clients may have positions in securities discussed or mentioned in its published content.
The Closer – Energy Rough Run, Beige Book, JOLTS – 9/3/25
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we begin with a look over the troubles in the Energy sector (page 1) before switching over to our quantified look at the Beige Book (pages 2 and 3). Next, We close out with a rundown of the latest JOLTS data (pages 4 and 5).
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 9/3/25 – Good News Google
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“Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.” – Oliver Cromwell
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
September may have started on a poor footing. Still, after a bounce yesterday afternoon, the positive tone carried over overnight and into this morning, following positive news for Alphabet (GOOGL) and, by extension, Apple (AAPL). Asian stocks were mostly lower overnight, with the Nikkei falling nearly 1% and China falling more than a percent. In Europe, though, there has been broad-based strength with the STOXX 600 trading up over 0.6%. On the economic calendar today, the only reports on the calendar are JOLTS and Factory Orders.
Yesterday was an unsurprising start to September, and the silver lining was that the ‘buy the dip’ mentality of investors that we discussed in Friday’s Bespoke Report remained intact. The S&P 500 sold off sharply early in the session, tested those lows right around midday, and then rallied throughout the session to finish right at the highs for the day. From a short-term perspective, the S&P 500 has now made two higher highs and two higher lows, reinforcing the overall upward trend.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are priced to continue yesterday afternoon’s bounce this morning, and the key driver is Alphabet (GOOGL) following last night’s ruling that it would not be required to sell its Chrome browser. In response, the stock is on pace to gap up nearly 6%. If these levels hold through the opening bell, it would be the largest upside non-earnings related gap higher since 2008.
With today’s gain, we also wanted to provide an update on the comparison between GOOGL and Microsoft (MSFT) since the launch of ChatGPT. The overall consensus has been that MSFT’s quick action and investments into OpenAI helped it to win the AI race among the hyperscalers, but the market has a different opinion. While MSFT has nearly doubled since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, at the open today, GOOGL will be up over 121%. While MSFT has won in the court of public opinion, GOOGL has won in the wallet.
