LULU vs MA: Which Is the Better Buy?

Side-by-side comparison of Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Mastercard Incorporated โ€” fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals. Updated 2026-09-21.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. ยท Consumer Cyclical
$98.06
+1.5% upside to fair value
Low Conviction Grade C
VS
Mastercard Incorporated ยท Financial Services
$574.42
+25.0% upside to fair value
Med Conviction Grade A- High Quality
QuantHub Verdict
MA has more upside to fair value (+25.0%). These are model outputs โ€” not personalized investment advice. See all research โ†’
Valuation & Fundamentals
Metric LULU MA
Current Price $98.06 $574.42
Fair Value Estimate $99.50 $718.00
Upside to Fair Value +1.5% +25.0%
Market Cap $11.1B $503.8B
Forward P/E โ€” โ€”
EV / EBITDA 4.6x 23.4x
Price / Sales 1.0x 14.4x
Price / FCF 8.2x 30.8x
Revenue Growth YoY -4.3% +14.1%
Gross Margin 56.1% 100%
Operating Margin 17.8% 59.8%
Return on Equity 29.7% 232.5%
Dividend Yield 0% 0.59%
FCF Yield 12.24% 3.25%
Analyst Consensus Sell Strong Buy
Investment Thesis
LULU โ€” Lululemon Athletica Inc.
Lululemon Athletica designs and retails premium athletic apparel and accessories through company-owned stores and direct-to-consumer channels, with roughly 39,000 employees and a brand built on technical fabrics and community-led fitness positioning. The business still earns high returns on equity of 29.7% and generates $12.00 of free cash flow per share on $97.70 of revenue per share, with TTM gโ€ฆ
MA โ€” Mastercard Incorporated
Mastercard operates a global payments network that connects issuers, acquirers, merchants and consumers across more than 200 countries and territories, monetizing payment volumes, cross-border activity and higher-growth value-added services. Business quality is high because its two-sided network, trusted authorization-clearing-settlement infrastructure, brand, security capabilities and broad acceโ€ฆ
Accumulation Zones
Metric LULU MA
Zone Low $74.62 $538.50
Zone High $84.58 $610.30
In Buy Zone? No Yes
โ† LULU Research    MA Research โ†’    All Research