Management and incentives

Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU

lululemon's compensation committee added $287.4M of cost back to fiscal 2025 operating income before deciding what its executives had earned, and $20.3M of that was the bill for firing the chief executive and for fighting Chip Wilson's proxy contest. That rewritten $2.50B still missed the annual profit bar by $33.0M and paid nothing on that half, while clearing the three-year bar at 134.4% of target.

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Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULUThe bet you're really making is that Lululemon's black leggings still command full price, even as fewer Americans walk into its stores. You're betting the rest of the world, China most of all, grows fast enough to cover a shrinking home market, and that the brand is in a slump, not a permanent fade. Right now it looks worse than the price says: sales at stores open a year fell 12% across the Americas on lighter foot traffic, while half-year profit dropped 24%. You pay about 8 times last year's earnings, less than the stock has cost at any year-end in the twelve years anyone has measured it. Company reportSep 6 NIKE, Inc. NKENIKE pays Elliott Hill to hold sales flat and widen the profit margin, and in fiscal 2026 the profit half of his bonus paid at 125% of target on Adjusted EBIT of $3.3B. He gets there by pushing goods back through wholesale, shrinking Converse and cutting payroll, because the $986M tariff refund that flattered fiscal 2026 does not come twice. Management and incentivesSep 20 Las Vegas Sands Corp. LVSThe bet you're really making is that Chinese tourists keep flying to Macau and losing money at Sands' tables, and that Sands keeps taking a bigger slice of it than the other five casino operators there. You are betting on the ordinary gambler rather than the whale, because Sands' ordinary-gambler business grew 8% last quarter while the whole Macau market's grew 4%. Right now it is going well with one thing to watch: the Singapore resort is earning more than it ever has, while the high rollers stayed home during the World Cup and the company's own tables ran unusually cold. You pay about 16 times last year's profit, less than the stock has cost in any of the last twelve years the company made money. Company reportSep 20 Wynn Resorts, Limited WYNNThe bet you're really making is that Wynn finishes a brand new resort on a man-made island north of Dubai, opens it in September 2027, and that it earns real money before the borrowing to build it does damage. Everything else Wynn owns is already finished and running: two resorts in Macau, one on the Las Vegas Strip, one outside Boston. Right now it is mixed. Las Vegas made $215 million last quarter and Macau $297 million, while the opening date slipped a year and the budget went up $600 million. You pay about 20 times last year's profit, the middle of what the stock has cost across the last twelve years it earned anything. Company reportSep 20