Under Armour (UA)

Under Armour (UA) has been busy expanding across the United States and abroad. On June 17th, the company announced that it would open its newest specialty retail location on 600 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago in March 2015. This prime location is located in the heart of the city’s thriving Magnificent Mile.

The Brand House will be almost 30,000 square feet of interactive retail space. It is specially designed to give a fully immersive brand experience through innovative digital displays that act as points of information, as well as inspiration. This retail concept has been successfully executed in other premium locations, including New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, the brand’s hometown in Baltimore, MD and Tysons Corner in McLean, VA. Susie McCabe, Senior Vice President of Global Retail stated “The Under Armour Chicago Brand House will be our largest to date and will provide us with a new opportunity to expand upon our mission to make all athletes better, while delivering an elevated and personalized shopping experience.”

The company has also made headway in their global ambition. On June 26 when Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank hosted the launch event for the brand’s new retail space in Panama City, Panama. The store is located in Multiplaza Pacific Mall, one of the country’s premiere shopping destinations.

The company’s management has been successful at increasing revenue. In fact revenue growth has surpassed the industry average of 14.8%. Since the same quarter one-year prior, revenues rose by 36%. Growth in revenue has also helped improve earnings per share. Under Armour reported significant earnings per share improvement over the past year from $0.61 to $0.75 this year. The market expects an improvement in earnings to increase to $0.92 this year.

The self-learning algorithm from the I Know First Top Stock Picks and S&P 500 forecast on July recently recommended UA for the 1-month time horizon. The stock was the top-performing asset in the forecast with a return of 18.68%. The average return from this forecast was 6.98% beating the S&P 500’s return of 2.59%.

The color-coded forecast is very easy to read where green indicates a bullish signal and red indicates a bearish signal. Deeper greens signify that the algorithm is very bullish and vice-versa for deeper reds. The signal is the number flush right in the middle of the box and the predicted direction (not a specific number or target price) for that asset, while the predictability is the historical correlation between the prediction and the actual market movements. In other words, the signal represents the forecasted strength of the prediction, while the predictability represents the level of confidence. These are two independent indicators but consider both as you make your own analysis. In this forecast UA had a fair signal of 16.48 and a very strong predictability of 0.48. While Under Armour was only the 10th best-recommended pick, the algorithm highlighted its bullishness with a deeper green color.

– Joshua Martin, Investment Analyst