nder Armour Inc. based in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the leading designers, marketers, and distributors of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. The Company engages in the design, development, marketing, and distribution of a range of apparels and accessories utilizing various synthetic microfiber fabrications in the United States and internationally. It offers a wide variety of products including sporting goods and lifestyle products. The Company provides its products for use by professional football, baseball, hockey, and soccer players, as well as other athletes primarily under the brand names of HeatGear, ColdGear, Under Armour, LooseGear, and AllSeasonGear. It also offers T-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, performance bags, baseball batting gloves, football gloves and cleats, and other related products for use in outdoor activities. In addition, the Company also provides accessories, such as baseball caps, knit caps, visors, headwear, and wristbands. Under Armour Inc. offers its products through retail stores, national and regional chains of retailers, smaller, independent, and specialty retailers, as well as through the website and catalogs.Key investment considerations as identified by the firms are as follows:Key Positive ArgumentsKey Negative ArgumentsFootwear Expansion: Focus on footwear expansion will allow the Company to gain additional market share.Efficient Management Team: A solid management team with a record of manufacturing credible products and delivering effective marketing campaigns.Product Innovation: New product introduction and increased product categories or varieties expected to drive revenue growth over the longer term.Competition: Under Armour has significant competition from several apparel vendors, some of which maintain greater scale, purchasing power, and market penetration. More mature brands focused on the sports performance market include Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Russell.Product Costs: Under Armour's profitability is susceptible to fluctuating costs, including labor, raw materials, and transportation.Consumer Demand: Demand for UA's products is based on a variety of factors, including consumer sentiment and discretionary income, as well as the demand for similar products from competing brands.Further information is available at the Company’s website http://www.uabiz.com.NOTE: The Company’s fiscal year coincides with the calendar year.November 22, 2011Long-Term GrowthLong-term growth rates as projected by the firms range from 15.0% to 22.0%, with an average of 18.5%.The Company continues to build a strong brand equity among its core consumers (capturing young generation), with success in core compression and training styles. However, a wide range of other opportunities remain particularly with the three categories, namely women’s apparel, international markets, and footwear, which are the primary focus of UA’s growth strategy.In the longer term, the firms view UA as a solid technical brand, with a sturdy balance sheet, management team, and long-term growth opportunities across all its categories. In the longer term, it continues to believe that the Company can return to both top- and bottom-line growth targets of 20% – 25%, driven by significant opportunities to grow the direct-to-consumer business, promote international growth and Footwear business, in addition to continued growth in Apparel.The firms believe that Under Armour offers substantial growth opportunities in the long term through geographic, product/category and direct-to-consumer expansion. On the back of well established brand of UA for technical product, the firms expect the Company to continue to benefit from longer-term shifting trends toward performance based products within the industry.Further, UA has significant long-term top line potential given its loyal customer base and relatively small revenue base. However, given that Apparel is still ex

Recent News

On October 25, 2011, Under Armour posted better-than-expected 3Q11 results. The quarterly earnings of 0.88 per share soared 29.4% from $0.68 earned in the prior-year quarter. The quarterly earnings included a gain of $0.04 due to tax planning strategies undertaken by the Company. Excluding this benefit, earnings came in at $0.84. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter was $0.83.
Under Armour’s net revenue for the quarter came in at 465.5 million, up 41.7% from the year-ago quarter, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $445 million.
On September 06, 2011, Under Armour announced realignment of senior executive team. The Company stated that Wayne Marino will be retiring as Chief Operating Officer, while Under Armour’s old-hand, Kip Fulks has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer.
However, the Company added that Mr. Marino will hold his position in the executive lineup and will shift his accountability focus on other areas. On the other side, Mr. Fulks, earlier Executive Vice President of Product, will keep his attention on the design and development of the Company's products, and will also look after its sourcing and information technology areas.
Further, to deliver the best in class product and develop the business policies and processes, Under Armour added two new positions in the Company, Chief Supply Chain Officer and Chief Performance Officer.
The Chief Supply Chain Officer will take the responsibility of sourcing, logistics, and distribution functions. Besides, the Company’s board member Chip Adams has been named as the new Chief Performance Officer.
Apart from these, Adam Peake has been promoted as the Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales for apparel, footwear and accessories brand

These are the major issues to consider when assessing this stock, according to analysts:

Key Positive Arguments Key Negative Arguments
Footwear Expansion: Focus on footwear expansion will allow the Company to gain additional market share.
Competition: Under Armour has significant competition from several apparel vendors, some of which maintain greater scale, purchasing power, and market penetration. More mature brands focused on the sports performance market include Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Russell.
Efficient Management Team: A solid management team with a record of manufacturing credible products and delivering effective marketing campaigns.
Product Costs: Under Armour's profitability is susceptible to fluctuating costs, including labor, raw materials, and transportation.
Product Innovation: New product introduction and increased product categories or varieties expected to drive revenue growth over the longer term.
Consumer Demand: Demand for UA's products is based on a variety of factors, including consumer sentiment and discretionary income, as well as the demand for similar products from competing brands.