Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 90 Shares of Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) by 6.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,525 shares of the textile maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Ralph Lauren were worth $337,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of RL. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 93.7% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 122 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 178.0% during the first quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 139 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Ralph Lauren during the first quarter worth approximately $39,000. Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 22,500.0% during the fourth quarter. Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd now owns 226 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 74.4% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 272 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on RL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $262.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $250.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $318.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Ralph Lauren in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Cfra Research cut Ralph Lauren from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.13.

Ralph Lauren Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of RL opened at $301.81 on Tuesday. Ralph Lauren Corporation has a one year low of $155.96 and a one year high of $303.64. The company has a market cap of $18.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $279.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.07.

Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The textile maker reported $2.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.27. Ralph Lauren had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 31.76%. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Ralph Lauren Corporation will post 12.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ralph Lauren declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the textile maker to repurchase up to 8.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ralph Lauren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th were given a dividend of $0.9125 per share. This is an increase from Ralph Lauren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.65 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 27th. Ralph Lauren’s payout ratio is currently 31.44%.

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.