When will Ralph Lauren stock go back in fashion?
Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE: RL) stock has shed almost 10% this year, and it suffers a 14% year-over-year deficit. Overall, it's been a choppy past 12 months for the apparel stock, with recent pressure emerging at the 10-day moving average, though yesterday it finished north of here for the first time this month. What's more, the stock provides a decent dividend yield of 2.55% with a forward dividend of $2.75.
Despite this recent price action, options bulls have taken a shine to RL. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the stock sports a 10-day put/call volume ratio of 5.33, which sits in the 87th percentile of its 12-month range. This means long calls are being picked up at a much quicker-than-usual clip.
Echoing this, the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.20 sits higher than just 1% of readings from the past year. In other words, there's been an incredible call-bias among short-term options traders.
Analysts, meanwhile, are split down the middle, with four saying "strong buy" and four saying "hold." It's also worth noting that short interest is unwinding, down 28.3% in the last two reporting periods.
Ralph Lauren stock also presents a very attractive opportunity as a recovery play. Although the fashion retail business has lacked consistency with its growth in recent years, reporting back-to-back years of top and bottom-line declines, RL is estimated to finish fiscal 2022 with 40% revenue growth and 384% earnings growth. In addition, Ralph Lauren is expected to increase revenues by 4.4% and earnings by 7.5% for fiscal 2023, which represents a much lower expected growth rate compared to fiscal 2022. This also signals an important shift from the previous downward trajectory.
Moreover, Ralph Lauren stock offers an intriguing valuation at a forward price-earnings ratio of 11.38 and a price-sales ratio of 1.31, potentially setting up RL for some a strong comeback in the coming year.