Lululemon shares cratered as much as 18% Thursday after the athleisure retailer slashed its full-year financial outlook for the second time this year, capping a fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales just as a new CEO prepares to take the wheel.

The stock fell to roughly $99.95 — a fresh 52-week low — after Lululemon reported fiscal second-quarter results showing revenue down 4% year-over-year to $2.4 billion, with comparable sales sliding 9% to 10%, according to CNBC. Sales in the Americas fell roughly 8%, and leggings — long the brand's signature category — dropped about 20%.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $2.92, down from $3.10 a year earlier, and even that figure was propped up by an $0.86-per-share, $134.5 million boost from IEEPA tariff refunds, according to Investing.com's rundown of the earnings call. Strip that one-time item out, and the underlying quarter looked considerably weaker.

Guidance cut again — and a CEO handoff looms

Lululemon now expects full-year revenue of $10.35 billion to $10.5 billion, down from prior guidance of $11 billion to $11.15 billion — a projected decline of 5% to 7% for the year. Full-year earnings-per-share guidance was cut to a range of $9.48 to $9.73, from $10.95 to $11.15, according to figures cited by Investing.com.

THE STOCK IS NOW DOWN ROUGHLY 42% SO FAR THIS YEAR

The timing compounds the pain: the guidance cut lands exactly one week before incoming chief executive Heidi O'Neill is set to formally take over from outgoing CEO Calvin McDonald. WWD reports the company has been steadily ceding market share to younger activewear rivals Alo Yoga and Vuori, both of which have chipped away at Lululemon's once-dominant hold on the premium leggings category.

Lululemon's leadership has framed the slowdown as a product and merchandising problem rather than a broader category collapse, pointing to a slower-than-expected rollout of new styles and colors. But with four straight quarters of sales declines now on the books, investors reacted Thursday as though patience is wearing thin — and O'Neill will inherit both the turnaround plan and the market's skepticism about it on her very first day on the job.

Thursday's selloff wiped out billions in market value in a single session and erased what had briefly looked like a stabilizing trend earlier this year. Wall Street analysts had already trimmed price targets ahead of the print, but the scale of the guidance cut — the second downward revision inside 12 months — caught even bearish forecasters off guard. Some analyst notes circulated Thursday questioned whether the company's pricing strategy, largely unchanged even as rivals undercut it on cost, needs a more fundamental rethink rather than incremental fixes.

For a brand that spent the past decade defining premium athleisure, the string of guidance cuts marks an unusually rocky stretch. Whether O'Neill leans into deeper discounting, faster product cycles, or a wholesale repositioning will likely become clear only once she has had a chance to address investors directly — something she is expected to do for the first time as CEO within weeks of taking over.