lululemon athletica inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, distributes, and retails technical athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories for women and men under the lululemon brand in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, and internationally. The company offers pants, shorts, tops, and jackets for athletic activities, such as yoga, running, training, and other activities. It also …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 56.6% (top 9%) and operating margin at 19.9% (top 3%) indicate strong pricing power.
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 93.1th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 76
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 83
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 89
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 78
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 87
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) scores 83 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #1 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail, the top 3%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (89/100) and its weakest is Cost Advantage (76/100).
How does lululemon athletica inc. compare with other Apparel Retail companies?
lululemon athletica inc. ranks #1 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score. That is the widest moat in Apparel Retail. The companies ranked closest are Buckle, Inc. (The) (BKE) at 81 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is lululemon athletica inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for lululemon athletica inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and LULU scores: Pricing Power (84), Cost Advantage (76), Customer Stickiness (83), Capital Efficiency (89), Resilience (78), Scale & Market Position (87). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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