Lo is Back

Ralph Lifshitz aka Ralph Lauren stepped down as CEO a short while ago. People started to speculate that it would mark the bottom in the stock, as the new CEO would be permitted to sheaf Ralph’s golden calves, pet projects that cost the company a fortune.

This latest quarter, just reported, was a gem, making new CEO Stefan Larsson look like a fucking genius.

The New York-based company has been reorganizing its business this year to cut $110 million in annual costs to combat weaker sales. A new CEO, Stefan Larsson, begins leading the company this month. He replaced founder Ralph Lauren, who will stay on with the company as executive chairman and chief creative officer. Larsson previously worked at Gap Inc.’s low-priced brand Old Navy and before that, H&M.

Ralph Lauren reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $160 million, or $1.86 per share. The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.73 per share.

Revenue slipped 1.2 percent to $1.97 billion, beating the $1.95 billion analysts expected on average, according to FactSet.

In the current quarter, which includes the important holiday shopping season, the company said it expects revenue to rise up to 2 percent from the previous year. Analysts expected revenue to rise about 1.4 percent to $2.04 billion.

This is one of the former premier retailers in the space. It fell on hard times, as fashion is very fickle. However, it appears the new CEO is fixed on cost cutting, which should boost earnings and attract institutional investors.

As an aside, for those of you unfamiliar with the front page picture and why such a maniac is clad in polo clothing, in front of a Ralph Lauren flag, like some sort of ISIS devil, but for the love of fashion instead of head cutting.

Back in the 90’s, in Brooklyn, there was a gang called “Lo Life’s”. I used to see these criminals traveling in packs of 30, ransacking Macy’s RL section. They prided themselves for their Polo garments and would regularly rob people for their Ralph Lauren outer-garments. It was like a mob of violent criminals, hell bent on acquiring and collecting Ralph Lauren clothes, which is part of the reason why Ralph once publicly lamented over ‘urban people’ wearing his clothes.

Poor Lifshitz, he changed his name to sound waspy and thought his clothing would be worn, exclusively, by yacht traveling 1%ers. Little did he know it would be hijacked by ‘urban lads’, embraced and resulted in wanton criminality, including murders, all for the love of that little man atop his horse.