What happened Shares of Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) closed lower on Friday, after the company reported a quarterly loss that was wider than Wall Street had expected and suspended its guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Ralph Lauren's shares ended Friday's session at $75.51, down 5.6% from Thursday's closing price. So what Ralph Lauren reported earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter after the market closed on Thursday, and they weren't quite what Wall Street had expected. The company's net loss in the three-month period that ended on March 28 was $50.5 million, or $0.68 per share, on a non-GAAP adjusted basis, on revenue of $1.27 billion. Both were down from a year earlier, when it reported adjusted earnings (a profit) of $1.07 per share on revenue of $1.51 billion. Image source: Ralph Lauren. More to the point, both fell short of consensus Wall Street estimates as reported by Thomson Reuters. Analysts had expected a profit of $0.01 per share on revenue of $1.29 billion, on average. What happened? Simply put, stores around the world were closed for part of the the quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and online sales didn't make up the difference. In fact, online sales in North America and Europe fell during the period. (They were up 15% in Asia, where physical stores were closed earlier in the quarter.) Now what Despite the loss, the company still has plenty of cash. As of March 28, it had $2.1 billion in cash, versus $1.2 billion in debt, and $736 million in inventory. While it understandably declined to give consumer-discretionary investors guidance for the upcoming fiscal year, it did say that it expects to safely return its business to growth when conditions improve. 10 stocks we like better than Ralph Lauren CorpWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Ralph Lauren Corp wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of April 16, 2020 John Rosevear has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source