D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Ralph Lauren Co. (NYSE:RL) by 89.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 29,915 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 261,552 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Ralph Lauren were worth $6,910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of Ralph Lauren by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,120,508 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $489,795,000 after buying an additional 70,544 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ralph Lauren by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,415,473 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $326,946,000 after buying an additional 205,121 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ralph Lauren by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,237,512 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $285,841,000 after buying an additional 289,924 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Ralph Lauren by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,079,578 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $249,361,000 after purchasing an additional 82,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Ralph Lauren by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 982,927 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $227,085,000 after purchasing an additional 65,303 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on RL. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Ralph Lauren from $258.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Ralph Lauren in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Ralph Lauren from $240.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ralph Lauren from $285.00 to $342.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays set a $260.00 target price on Ralph Lauren and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.71.

Ralph Lauren Trading Down 0.1%

RL opened at $269.16 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.44. Ralph Lauren Co. has a 52 week low of $155.96 and a 52 week high of $289.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $221.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $232.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Ralph Lauren Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were issued a $0.825 dividend. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. Ralph Lauren’s payout ratio is currently 30.11%.

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.