Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

by · The Markets Daily

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL – Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on RL. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Ralph Lauren from $171.00 to $193.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $287.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Cfra set a $171.00 target price on shares of Ralph Lauren in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ralph Lauren presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.90.

Read Our Latest Report on RL

Ralph Lauren Price Performance

Shares of RL stock traded up $0.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $222.58. 816,101 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 866,140. Ralph Lauren has a twelve month low of $113.92 and a twelve month high of $237.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.19. The firm has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $179.25.

Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The textile maker reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.11. Ralph Lauren had a return on equity of 28.79% and a net margin of 10.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.10 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ralph Lauren will post 11.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Ralph Lauren Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. Ralph Lauren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.46%.

Institutional Trading of Ralph Lauren

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Ralph Lauren by 12,493.8% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,002,344 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $175,470,000 after purchasing an additional 994,385 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ralph Lauren by 158.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 863,336 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $149,478,000 after buying an additional 528,778 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Ralph Lauren by 15,903.6% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 448,902 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $84,266,000 after acquiring an additional 446,097 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Ralph Lauren during the 1st quarter valued at about $61,022,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 4.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,908,575 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $921,634,000 after purchasing an additional 203,495 shares during the last quarter. 67.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Ralph Lauren

(Get Free Report)

Ralph Lauren Corporation designs, markets, and distributes lifestyle products in North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company offers apparel, including a range of men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing; footwear and accessories, which comprise casual shoes, dress shoes, boots, sneakers, sandals, eyewear, watches, fashion and fine jewelry, scarves, hats, gloves, and umbrellas, as well as leather goods, such as handbags, luggage, small leather goods, and belts; home products consisting of bed and bath lines, furniture, fabric and wallcoverings, floor coverings, lighting, tabletop, kitchen linens, floor coverings, dining, decorative accessories, and giftware; and fragrances.

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