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RL, Ralph Lauren Corporation

Textiles & Apparel consumer brand Cyclical

Ralph Lauren, we are a global leader in the design, marketing, and distribution of luxury lifestyle products, including apparel, handbags, footwear & accessories, fragrances, home, and hospitality.

Our long-standing reputation and distinctive image have been developed across a wide range of products, brands, distribution channels, and international markets.

We sell directly to consumers through our integrated retail channel, which includes our retail stores, concession-based shop-within-shops, and digital commerce operations around the world.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

RL · Ralph Lauren Corporation

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$8.1B

+14.6% YoY · 13% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $8.1B 5-yr avg $6.9B

Gross margin 70% 5-yr avg 67%

Operating margin 14.5% 5-yr avg 12.6%

ROIC 45% 5-yr avg 34%

Owner-earnings margin 11% 5-yr avg 10%

Free cash flow margin 9% 5-yr avg 10%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is led by North America (41%) and Europe (31%), with 2 more segments behind.
Situation: Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 65% and operating margin about 8.9% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. The operating margin has swung widely — from −1.4% to 15% — on a steadier 65% gross margin, so what moves it sits below the gross line, in operating spend and one-off charges more than in the cost of the product itself. Inventory runs near 13% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has run high across the record (median 20%, above 15% in 5 of 10 years), though buybacks and expensed R&D and brands shrink the capital base, so the figure overstates the underlying economics. The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 10% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Whether these returns reflect real pricing power or an accounting artifact is the judgment the 10-K is for.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 4 segments, the largest North America at 41%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2026

North America41%$3.3B
Europe31%$2.5B
Asia26%$2.1B
Other Non-Reportable Segment-Related2%$143M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$6.7B	$6.2B	$6.3B	$6.2B	$4.4B	$6.2B	$6.4B	$6.6B	$7.1B	$8.1B	$8.1B	RevenueRevenue
55%	61%	62%	59%	65%	67%	65%	67%	69%	70%	70%	Gross marginGross mgn
48%	50%	50%	53%	60%	53%	53%	54%	55%	54%	54%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
($92M)	$498M	$562M	$317M	($44M)	$798M	$704M	$756M	$932M	$1.2B	$1.2B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−1.4%	8.1%	8.9%	5.1%	−1.0%	12.8%	10.9%	11.4%	13.2%	14.5%	14.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($99M)	$163M	$431M	$384M	($121M)	$600M	$523M	$646M	$743M	$941M	$941M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	26%	—	—	20%	24%	17%	22%	20%	20%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$953M	$975M	$784M	$755M	$381M	$716M	$411M	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$308M	$295M	$281M	$270M	$248M	$230M	$221M	$229M	$220M	$233M	$233M	DepreciationDeprec.
$681M	$443M	($17M)	$200K	$182M	($196M)	($408M)	$95M	$165M	($131M)	($131M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$284M	$162M	$198M	$270M	$108M	$167M	$218M	$165M	$216M	$408M	$408M	CapexCapex
4.3%	2.6%	3.1%	4.4%	2.4%	2.7%	3.4%	2.5%	3.1%	5.0%	5.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$669M	$814M	$586M	$484M	$273M	$549M	$194M	$905M	$1.0B	$921M	$921M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
10.0%	13.2%	9.3%	7.9%	6.2%	8.8%	3.0%	13.6%	14.4%	11.4%	11.4%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$669M	$814M	$586M	$484M	$273M	$549M	$194M	$905M	$1.0B	$746M	$746M	Free cash flowFCF
10.0%	13.2%	9.3%	7.9%	6.2%	8.8%	3.0%	13.6%	14.4%	9.2%	9.2%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$6M	$5M	$5M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$5M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$165M	$162M	$191M	$204M	$50M	$150M	$198M	$195M	$201M	$217M	$217M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$215M	$17M	$503M	$695M	$38M	$493M	$489M	$450M	$481M	$624M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
-2%	9%	12%	14%	-2%	28%	26%	33%	40%	45%	45%	ROICROIC
-3%	5%	13%	14%	-5%	24%	22%	26%	29%	33%	33%	Return on equityROE
−8%	0%	7%	7%	−7%	18%	13%	18%	21%	26%	26%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$1.4B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.8B	$2.6B	$1.6B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$450M	$421M	$398M	$277M	$452M	$405M	$448M	$447M	$460M	$492M	$492M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$792M	$761M	$818M	$736M	$759M	$977M	$1.1B	$902M	$950M	$1.0B	$1.0B	InventoryInvent.
$148M	$166M	$202M	$247M	$356M	$449M	$372M	$332M	$436M	$431M	$431M	Accounts payablePayables
$1.1B	$1.0B	$1.0B	$767M	$855M	$934M	$1.1B	$1.0B	$973M	$1.1B	$1.1B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$3.0B	$3.5B	$3.6B	$3.4B	$4.2B	$4.2B	$3.3B	$3.4B	$3.8B	$3.9B	$3.9B	Current assetsCur. assets
$1.2B	$1.6B	$1.2B	$2.1B	$1.6B	$2.3B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$2.1B	$1.8B	$1.8B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.5×	2.2×	3.0×	1.6×	2.7×	1.9×	2.2×	2.3×	1.8×	2.1×	2.1×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$905M	$951M	$920M	$916M	$935M	$909M	$899M	$888M	$889M	$904M	$904M	GoodwillGoodwill
$5.7B	$6.1B	$5.9B	$7.3B	$7.9B	$7.7B	$6.8B	$6.6B	$7.0B	$7.7B	$7.7B	Total assetsAssets
$588M	$596M	$689M	$1.2B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	Total debtDebt
($765M)	($1.4B)	($1.3B)	($945M)	($1.1B)	($962M)	($427M)	($643M)	($940M)	($826M)	($826M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-7.4×	27.4×	27.1×	18.0×	-0.9×	14.8×	17.4×	17.9×	21.1×	21.8×	21.8×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$3.3B	$3.5B	$3.3B	$2.7B	$2.6B	$2.5B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.8B	$2.8B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
1.0%	1.2%	1.4%	1.6%	1.7%	1.3%	1.2%	1.5%	1.5%	1.4%	1.4%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
82.7M	82.5M	81.7M	77.2M	73.5M	74.3M	69.0M	66.5M	64.0M	62.3M	62.3M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$80.44	$74.94	$77.27	$79.79	$59.87	$83.69	$93.39	$99.72	$110.61	$130.25	$130.25	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.20	$1.97	$5.27	$4.98	$-1.65	$8.08	$7.58	$9.72	$11.61	$15.11	$15.11	EPS (diluted)EPS
$8.08	$9.86	$7.17	$6.27	$3.72	$7.39	$2.80	$13.61	$15.92	$14.79	$14.79	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$8.08	$9.86	$7.17	$6.27	$3.72	$7.39	$2.80	$13.61	$15.92	$11.98	$11.98	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.99	$1.97	$2.33	$2.64	$0.68	$2.02	$2.87	$2.93	$3.14	$3.48	$3.48	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$3.43	$1.96	$2.42	$3.50	$1.47	$2.25	$3.15	$2.48	$3.38	$6.55	$6.55	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$39.90	$41.91	$40.24	$34.88	$35.43	$34.13	$35.22	$36.85	$40.45	$45.61	$45.61	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+5.5%/yr	+16.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+6.9%/yr	+31.8%/yr
Dividends / share	+6.4%/yr	+38.7%/yr
Capital spending / share	+7.4%/yr	+34.9%/yr
Book value / share	+1.5%/yr	+5.2%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

Revenue+14.6%
“Net revenues increased by $1.035 billion, or 14.6%, to $8.115 billion in Fiscal 2026 as compared to Fiscal 2025, reflecting growth across all of our reportable segments, including favorable foreign currency effects of $201.9 million.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
Operating income+26.5%
“Operating income increased by $247.1 million, or 26.5%, to $1.179 billion during Fiscal 2026, reflecting favorable foreign currency effects of $81.8 million.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
Net income+26.7%
“Net income increased by $198.2 million to $941.1 million in Fiscal 2026 as compared to Fiscal 2025, primarily due to a $247.1 million increase in our operating income, partially offset by a $28.8 million increase in our income tax provision and a $20.1 million increase in our non-operating expense, net.”
✓ figure matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

62Mpeak FY2017

ROIC

45%low FY2017

Gross margin

70%low FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$921Mowner earningsvs.$941Mnet incomelow FY2023

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business earned $921M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $233M it takes just to hold its position. It put $175M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $746M.

Reported net income$941M

Owner earnings$921M · 11% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	$941M	$743M	$646M	$523M	$600M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$233M	+$220M	+$229M	+$221M	+$230M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$111M	+$108M	+$100M	+$76M	+$82M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$131M	+$165M	+$95M	−$408M	−$196M
Cash from operations	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$411M	$716M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$233M	−$216M	−$165M	−$218M	−$167M
Owner earnings	$921M	$1.0B	$905M	$194M	$549M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$175M	—	—	—	—
Free cash flow	$746M	$1.0B	$905M	$194M	$549M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	11%	14%	14%	3%	9%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $233M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $175M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $111M), owner earnings is nearer $810M.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 21.8×

Comfortable

Operating income $1.2B ÷ interest expense $54M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$826M

Net cash

Cash $2.0B + ST investments $77M − debt $1.2B

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $826M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. It also holds $2M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at net cash of $828M. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 109d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 22 + DIO 151 − DPO 64 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 14%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median, range -2%–45%; 45% latest = NOPAT $942M ÷ invested capital $2.1B

Industry peers: median 16%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 10 years (it ran 45% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 9%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 3%–14%; latest $921M = operating cash $1.2B − maintenance capex $233M

Industry peers: median 7%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 11% of revenue this year, a 9% median across 10 years. It chose to put $175M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $746M — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $111M of SBC) leaves $810M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.23×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $1.2B ÷ net income $941M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 91%

Returns most of it

Dividends + buybacks $840M ÷ Owner Earnings $921M

What this means
Of $921M Owner Earnings, $840M (91%) went back to shareholders, $217M dividends, $624M buybacks. Net of $111M stock comp, the real buyback was about $513M. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 1.75×

Expanding

Capex $408M ÷ depreciation $233M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 5 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $8.1B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.13×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Pass

Debt ≤ working capital · $1.2B vs $2.1B WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 2 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +371%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $12.73/share (latest year $15.43), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $46.58/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 8 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 5 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 5% → 13% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 5% early to 13% lately, median 9% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth +3%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 3% a year over the record.
Worst year 2017 · −1.4% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2017, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count −3.1%/yr

What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2026 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“When incorporated into our business processes, such risks could result in errors, inefficiencies, operational disruptions, or diminished customer experiences, and employees' use of AI tools may not always comply with our policies or controls.”

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Mar 28, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$3.9B

Cash & short-term investments$2.1B
Receivables$492M
Inventory$1.0B
Other current assets$316M

Current liabilities$1.8B

Accounts payable$431M
Other current liabilities$1.4B

Current ratio2.13×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.57×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio1.13×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$2.1Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+12.2%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters2.2× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$1.8Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($1.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$2.8B$1.5B of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $3.0B (annual-report basis)

Deferred revenue$27Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Lease obligations

the lease note, SEC EDGAR →

Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

Operating leasesFinance leases

'27$294M

'28$305M

'29$270M

'30$221M

'31$183M

later$823M

Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.

Due in the next 12 months$294Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year

Total lease payments$2.1Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take

On the balance sheet$1.8Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$1.2B

Lease obligations (present value)$1.8B

Total fixed claims on the business$3.0B

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $3.0B, of which the leases are 59%, more than the debt itself. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.

Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Mar 28, 2026 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $8.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$2.2B · 26%
Dividends$1.7B · 21%
Buybacks$4.0B · 47%
Retained (debt / cash)$503M · 6%

Returned to owners$5.7B
89% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $1.7B as dividends and $4.0B as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $4.0B over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count−24.7%
The diluted count fell from 83M to 62M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$3.48/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 6% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2022	Mr. Louvet	$18.6M	$18.1M	$549M
2023	Mr. Louvet	$14.5M	$14.0M	$194M
2024	Mr. Louvet	$16.6M	$42.0M	$905M
2025	Mr. Louvet	$23.1M	$40.2M	$1.0B
2026	Mr. Louvet	$23.3M	$62.8M	$921M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$111M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 9% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Ralph Lauren Corporation is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2026.

2 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$588M → $1.2B
Debt rose from $588M to $1.2B while owner earnings went from about $689M to $948M — about 0.9 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 1.3 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.
Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?8 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 8 of the last 10 years, $494M in all. A charge taken almost every year is not one-time; it is the business — past deals coming due, and an admission the assets were worth less than what was paid. Munger's rule: when the "one-time" keeps happening, it is the business. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Income taxes, Credit & receivables, Inventory, Stock compensation as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Textiles & Apparel

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
LULUlululemon athletica inc.	$11.1B	56%	20.6%	58%	14%
CTASCintas	$10.3B	49%	18.0%	20%	15%
VFCVF Corp.	$9.6B	54%	8.9%	13%	7%
PVHPVH Corp.	$9.0B	56%	8.0%	8%	7%
RLRalph Lauren Corporation	$8.1B	65%	9.9%	20%	10%
LEVILevi Strauss & Co	$6.3B	58%	9.8%	23%	5%
KTBKontoor Brands Inc. Common Stock	$3.2B	42%	12.1%	16%	12%
OXMOxford Industries	$1.5B	59%	8.0%	14%	7%
Group median	—	56%	9.9%	18%	9%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Ralph Lauren Corporation has delivered.

Ralph Lauren Corporation’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Ralph Lauren Corporation earns about $784M on its 9.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 11.4% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($784M) Net of stock comp (−$111M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($921M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26+27%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26+2%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Free cash flow $746M on 61M shares outstanding (a weighted basic average, the only count this filer tags); net cash $826M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($408M) runs well above depreciation ($233M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $921M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh RL against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Ralph Lauren Corporation (RL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/RL, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← RKT its page in the Manual RLAY →

Industry order: ← PVH the Textiles & Apparel chapter UA →