In this segment of the Motley Fool Money podcast, host Chris Hill and Fool senior analysts Matt Argersinger, David Kretzmann, and Aaron Bush check in on still-recovering apparel company Under Armour (NYSE:UA) (NYSE:UAA). It's been doing a lot to overcome its many issues, but its overall growth rate is failing to hit the levels investors expect. The Fools put the latest quarter in context.
A full transcript follows the video.
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This video was recorded on July 27, 2018.
Chris Hill: International sales for Under Armour rose nearly 30% in the second quarter. That's good, Matty, because here in North America, Under Armour sales were barely positive.
Matt Argersinger: Right. And, barely positive, considering we had three consecutive quarters of negativity in that number, is not bad. But yes, after Nike (NYSE:NKE) reported last month, and reported fairly good North American numbers, I expected Under Armour to do a little better. It's nice to see the growth. International is where it's happening right now. Under Armour has a lot to do to fix its North American business.
Overall revenue growth of 7%. When you factor in all the restructuring they've done, the debt they've built up on the balance sheet, the inventory issue they're still facing, it's not a great number, especially when Nike and other competitors are growing about twice that rate. I feel like Under Armour still has a lot of work to do.
Hill: That's the thing. You sort of felt, earlier this year, that 2018 was going to be pretty pivotal for Under Armour for a lot of reasons, one of which had to do with management, and the team that Plank has put around him, and can he put that team to use, and can he keep them in the building?
Argersinger: "Keep" being the operative verb there.
Hill: Exactly. It does seem like, coming into this, maybe they're finishing their cleanup work, and then they can unleash the business. But it still seems like they're not nearly at that point yet.
Argersinger: Yeah. Maybe, as we get closer to the holidays, this could be a final nice push for the second half of the year. But all evidence I saw, at least on this quarter, is that it's still a work in progress.
