Ralph Lauren’s increased marketing and digital investments helped drive growth in the quarter.

Ralph Lauren, executive chairman and chief creative officer, said the passion of the company’s teams for the brand, in a 2018 Women’s Wear Daily report,“along with Patrice’s [Louvet, president and chief executive officer] partnership over the last year, the clear plan he and the team laid out in June, and the initial progress in this quarter, give me confidence in our future as we celebrate 50 years in business.”

Louvet said, “Guided by our three core principles of putting the consumer at the center of all we do, elevating and energizing our brand and balancing productivity and growth, we are on track to return the company to long-term, sustainable growth and value creation.”

According to a 2018 Women’s Wear Daily report, shares of Ralph Lauren Corp. rose 4.2 percent in early-morning trading Tuesday after the company posted first-quarter results that beat Wall Street’s estimates for both earnings per share and revenues.

For the quarter ended June 30, net income rose 83.2 percent to $109 million, or $1.31 a diluted share, from $59.5 million, or 72 cents, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, EPS was $1.54 a diluted share, excluding restructuring-related and other charges, versus adjusted EPS of $1.11 in the year-ago quarter. Net revenues rose 3.2 percent to $1.39 billion from $1.35 billion.

Wall Street was expecting adjusted EPS of $1.36 on revenues of $1.36 billion.

Shares of Ralph Lauren were trading at $141.53 at 10:18 a.m.

Image via Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

The CEO noted that the company is “off to an encouraging start to the new fiscal year on both the top and the bottom line.” He added that the teams around the world are “fully engage and focused on executing the Next Great Chapter plan” that the company disclosed last month at its Investor Day meeting.

The company said North American revenues fell 2 percent to $698 million, mostly due to the company’s decision to exit from lower quality distribution. Comparable-store sales were down 3 percent due to a 3 percent decrease in brick-and-mortar stores and a 2 percent decline at ralphlauren.com. Excluding the impact of Easter timing, comps were flat versus last year, according to a 2018 Women’s Wear Daily report.

Featured Image via Ralph Lauren

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