** Piper Sandler slashes PT on sportswear maker Lululemon LULU.O to $200 from $270; a 7.6% downside to the stock's last close

** Maintains a "neutral" stance

** Brokerage questions if Lululemon is spending too much on innovation, pointing to its 57 times “newness in color” mentions, nearly triple from last year

** Co shares marginally up in premarket trading

** Piper Sandler also points out the sale section is growing, with more items in “We Made Too Much” than last holiday season, which could mean more risk to future earnings estimates

** "We see...new product moves to clearance racks quickly as the consumer doesn't have a chance to react to newness, helping explain the step-up in discounting" - brokerage

** Stock rated "buy" on average from 34 analysts; median PT $280.49, per data compiled by LSEG

** Up to last close, stock has fallen ~43% YTD

(Reporting by Akriti Shah in Bengaluru)

((akriti.shah@thomsonreuters.com))