JT Stratford LLC Acquires New Position in Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL)

JT Stratford LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,138 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RL. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Ralph Lauren by 30.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,237,512 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $285,841,000 after acquiring an additional 289,924 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,415,473 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $326,946,000 after acquiring an additional 205,121 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Ralph Lauren by 671.0% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 136,239 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $31,637,000 after purchasing an additional 118,569 shares in the last quarter. Capitolis Liquid Global Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ralph Lauren during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $20,788,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,079,578 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $249,361,000 after purchasing an additional 82,819 shares during the last quarter. 67.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on RL shares. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Ralph Lauren from $258.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. BNP Paribas upgraded Ralph Lauren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ralph Lauren from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ralph Lauren from $285.00 to $342.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.29.

Ralph Lauren Stock Performance

NYSE:RL opened at $277.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.76. Ralph Lauren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $155.96 and a fifty-two week high of $289.33. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $235.10. The company has a market capitalization of $17.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.44.

Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The textile maker reported $2.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Ralph Lauren had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 30.88%. Ralph Lauren’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.71 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Ralph Lauren Co. will post 12.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Ralph Lauren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be paid a $0.9125 dividend. This represents a $3.65 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. This is an increase from Ralph Lauren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Ralph Lauren’s payout ratio is currently 30.11%.

Ralph Lauren announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the textile maker to reacquire up to 8.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Ralph Lauren Profile

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.