"Those are some nice armoires"
Hey Snackers,
"Salad Frosting." Now a thing. Kraft is renaming/repackaging its ranch dressing to trick kids to eat veggies with a white marketing lie.
Stocks inched down Wednesday ahead of two more IPOs arriving this week (Fiverr and Chewy).
Relax into that upholstered sofa... and enjoy the 25% jump of Restoration Hardware shares after Wednesday's earnings (FYI, it goes by "RH" now). The fancy furniture brand jumped for 2 reasons: Sales rose 7% and it's moving some production out of China because, you know, trade war (investors were glad). But 1 detail in the report was the centerpiece.
Good news for your 3rd home's coffee table... RH just released its 136-page "RH Beach House" catalog ("RH Ski House" arrives this fall). Real and printed. Flip through the St. Barts and Mykonos chapters to gaze upon the naturally "teak" $1,000+ patio necessities. While the rest of retail errs on the side of online, RH does the opposite.
This is the extremification of American retail... Income stratification in the US is increasingly reflected by what stores are succeeding — Stocks of Dollar General and luxury LVMH are close to record highs. Now Restoration Hardware is leaning into its opulent origins by aiming even higher upscale with Beach House and Ski House. And more RH Galleries hit SF and Charlotte, NC this year.
Stretchy pants, stretchy earnings... Lululemon's stock rose 5% Wednesday on a report that sales jumped 20% last quarter compared to the year before. Here are the different asanas that contributed to that growth:
This is vintage Lulu... It constantly introduces new products, but last quarter was driven by its OG flagship goods — women's leggings and jogger pants. At $100+, they're more expensive than the competition, but the CEO has no plans to lower the price. He even boosted his expectations for profits for the rest of the year.
Mo' men, mo' money... Lulu profits hit a record $97M last quarter driven by sales to women. But this past spring, the CEO released an aggressive 5-year plan with a bold goal: Double men's sales by 2023. He's also pushing the Lulu lifestyle with clothing-free deodorant and sneakers. Plus there's expansion to China and Europe. Operation power flow.
When the DNC was hacked by Russia pre-election 2016... CrowdStrike was there. The cybersecurity company that protects against hacks discovered the breach, told the FBI, and then snagged a lot of PR. Now it's earning attention for its IPO — Shares surged 71% in their first day of trading and CrowdStrike is worth almost $12B (aka 2/3 as much as Lyft).
Who ya gonna call?... Probably one of these companies. The attention on CrowdSource reveals how packed the competitive landscape is for securing your digital stuff (work and home):
Bikes need bike helmets... As internet adoption grows, so does the data generated along with it — And each bit of data probably needs protecting. The rise of tech is driving the cybersecurity industry that guards it. CrowdStrike (and its 5X revenue growth since 2017 to $250M) is happily caught in that trend.
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Lululemon and Amazon