Ralph Lauren (RL), which is currently trading at a price of $126.86, released 3rd quarter earnings yesterday February 9th 2011. Net income rose to $168.4 million or $1.72 a share which beat expectations of $1.29. Revenue climbed to $1.5 billion beating the expectations of $1.46. Same store sales increased by 15%. As of close of February 8th 2011 the stock is up 47% in this past year. Also announced was the approval for a $250 million dollar buy back which is in addition to about $469 remaining under another plan. In addition, the company has declared an increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend to $0.20 per share from $0.10 per share. While performance has improved there will be challenges facing RL including increasing cotton prices. UASBIG will monitor this closely however does believe that Ralph Lauren has the pricing power to offset the increase in commodity costs.
~Susan Jacobson
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