Lululemon Athletica (LULU) closed Friday at $100.61, down 17.38% in a single session. That is about 80% below the $511.29 peak it hit in December 2023. Its founder is now in divorce court.
The Nasdaq-listed sportswear retailer has cut its sales forecast three times this year. Days after the latest cut, reports confirmed founder Chip Wilson is divorcing without a prenuptial agreement.
A Third Guidance Cut Pushed Lululemon to an 8-Year Low
Guidance is a company’s own forecast of what it expects to sell. Lululemon has lowered its 2026 forecast from $11.35 billion in March to $10.35 billion now.
Second-quarter revenue fell 4% to $2.4 billion. Comparable sales, a measure that counts only stores open for at least a year, dropped 9%.
Profit looked healthier than the business. Earnings of $2.92 a share included a one-off $134.5 million refund on import tariffs.
BeInCrypto reported the stock’s drop to eight-year lows on September 4. Shares have not recovered, and the company expects third-quarter sales to fall another 10% to 11%.
Why the Founder’s Divorce Matters to Shareholders
Wilson and his wife, Shannon “Summer” Wilson, opened a family case in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in April. There is no prenuptial agreement.
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Wilson and connected entities hold 9.9 million shares, or 8.7% of the company, according to a May securities filing. That block was worth just under $1 billion at Friday’s close. Roughly 1.1 million of those shares are already attributed to Summer Wilson.
British Columbia law protects what each spouse owned before the marriage. The growth in that value during the marriage is split evenly by default. Lululemon went public in 2007, five years after the couple wed.
Wilson ended a campaign to unseat directors in May, accepting two board seats and an 18-month truce with the board.
New chief executive Heidi O’Neill starts this week. She inherits falling sales and a shrinking North American business. The founder’s voting bloc now sits inside a sealed courtroom.