Ralph Lauren tops revenue estimates as China sales surge
Polo shirts and cable-knit jumpers did the heavy lifting in China, helping Ralph Lauren beat estimates and push annual revenue past $8 billion.
The cleanest read on Ralph Lauren right now is sitting in China, where the brand’s old hits still look fresh. Polo shirts and cable-knit jumpers carried the quarter, and that familiar mix of icons, accessible entry points and polished Americana helped the company beat Wall Street’s expectations while rivals keep stumbling through the same market.
Ralph Lauren said fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue reached $1.98 billion, ahead of analysts’ estimate of $1.85 billion. Revenue rose 17% on a reported basis and 12% in constant currency for the quarter ended March 28, 2026, and the stock jumped about 10% after the results. For the full fiscal year, revenue passed $8 billion for the first time, landing at $8.1 billion, up 15% reported and 12% in constant currency. That is not a small win for a nearly 60-year-old American label founded by Ralph Lauren in 1967 as a ties business. It is proof that the house still knows how to make aspiration feel easy to buy.
The real heat came from Asia, where CEO Patrice Louvet said China sales were more than 50% higher. Lunar New Year demand helped, but so did something more durable: local brand engagement and the kind of product people can recognize from across a room. Ralph Lauren does not need to reinvent itself in China when a Polo shirt still reads as status and a cable-knit sweater still reads as polish. The brand’s breadth matters too. Its price ladder lets a younger customer in through the front door without scaring off the legacy client who wants the best version of the same code.
That broad appeal showed up in the retail numbers. Global direct-to-consumer comparable-store sales rose 17% in the quarter and 13% for the full year, with mid-teens growth in average unit retail powered by strong full-price selling. In a luxury market where markdowns can quietly eat the room, that full-price discipline is the kind of detail that matters. Ralph Lauren also said adjusted gross margin expanded to 69% in the quarter, while full-year adjusted operating margin hit 16.0%.
The company returned more than $700 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in fiscal 2026, and the board approved a 10% dividend increase. It also set preliminary fiscal 2027 guidance for mid-single-digit net revenue growth and continued operating margin expansion on a constant-currency basis. That is the larger lesson in Ralph Lauren’s China playbook: in luxury, recognizable icons still sell, a broad price ladder still widens the funnel, and younger customers still respond when a heritage brand feels unmistakable, not dusty.
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