What's going on?

Adidas scored a big goal on Wednesday: the German sportswear giant told investors that it had a pretty spectacular 2016, and the stock price hit an all-time high!

What does this mean?

Adidas put a big smile on investors� faces when it not only reported strong sales growth in 2016, but also upped the company�s �long-term guidance� (i.e. how much it expects to earn in the future). It said that it expects sales to increase by 10-12% until 2020, which was clearly music to investors� ears � the stock was up almost 10% on Wednesday! Improvements to its ecommerce business and efficiencies in manufacturing have helped deliver the strong results � and that�s expected to continue in the future.

Why should I care?

For the stock: Adidas� CEO is delivering on his promises to make the company more profitable.

Adidas began its turnaround about three years ago, but it took a few years to really get going. Adidas� profit in 2016 was more than 40% higher than it was last year, which was partly thanks to making more money on each pair of shoes it sold and pushing down costs for the company at the same time. In short, it�s executing well on its plan � and, so far, reaping the benefits.

The bigger picture: A resurgent Adidas is hurting its competitors.

Adidas reported sales growth above 20% in all three of its major markets (Europe, China and the US) in 2016, but the strongest growth came from America. That�s bad news for competitors like Nike and, especially, US-focused Under Armour. In fact, Adidas has even recently regained its position as America�s second best-selling sportswear brand (having passed Under Armour).