Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL) Short Interest Down 19.3% in November

Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, a drop of 19.3% from the October 31st total of 3,050,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 663,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days. Approximately 6.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Ralph Lauren

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,657 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Simmons Bank lifted its stake in Ralph Lauren by 2.3% in the third quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 2,703 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $524,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 1.2% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 5,687 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Ralph Lauren by 11.3% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 672 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $130,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ralph Lauren by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 1,236 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on RL shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Ralph Lauren from $200.00 to $257.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Ralph Lauren from $208.00 to $251.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Cfra set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Ralph Lauren in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Ralph Lauren from $171.00 to $193.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ralph Lauren from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.90.

Ralph Lauren Stock Up 3.9 %

RL stock traded up $8.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $231.40. 613,111 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 857,058. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.21. The company has a market capitalization of $14.37 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.49. Ralph Lauren has a twelve month low of $127.68 and a twelve month high of $237.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The textile maker reported $2.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.11. Ralph Lauren had a return on equity of 29.44% and a net margin of 10.15%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.10 earnings per share. Ralph Lauren’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ralph Lauren will post 11.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ralph Lauren Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Ralph Lauren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.46%.

Ralph Lauren Company 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.