Ralph Lauren Corp. charged past profit and sales projections in its fiscal fourth quarter — and while the company forecast continued expansion this year, waning consumer confidence is expected to slow the growth rate. 

“The consumer is pressured from a sentiment standpoint in the key markets,” Patrice Louvet, president and chief executive officer, told WWD on Thursday.“ You look at U.S. data, you look at UK data, you look at China data, the consumer sentiment is clearly challenged.”

The company has been steadily elevating its positioning and prices for about eight years, building a base that weathered the pandemic and its aftermath and is now being buffeted by President Trump’s trade war. 

The core Ralph Lauren customer is holding up, for now.

“We have not seen so far a change in behavior and engagement with our core consumer and are encouraged by the momentum that we have and this around the world,” Louvet said. “What we expect is that at some point this negative consumer sentiment is going to translate into purchasing behavior.” 

Over the last fiscal year, Ralph Laruen’s revenues rose 7 percent to $7.1 billion — an increase of 8 percent in constant currencies.

But this year, the company is projecting that to slow to a low-single digit increase in constant currencies. That points to a significant slowdown in the fall since high-single digit growth is expected to continue for the first fiscal quarter. 

“The way companies in the U.S. are going to be dealing with the tariffs is through pricing,” Louvet said. “So it’s likely that in the back half, which for us starts in September, the consumer will feel incremental inflationary pressure. That’s our current forecast. Things could change meaningfully. There could be a continued disconnect between consumer sentiment and consumer purchasing pattern. And then obviously there’s still uncertainty in terms of what the final situation will be on tariffs and that will impact different companies’ strategy.”

For now, the company is still working with plenty of momentum. 

Fourth-quarter net income increased 42 percent to $129 million, or $2.03 a diluted share, from $90.7 million, or $1.38, a year earlier. 

Excluding restructuring and other changes, adjusted earnings rose to $2.27 — 23 cents ahead of the $2.04 analysts had penciled in, according to Yahoo Finance. 

Revenues for the quarter ended March 29 rose 8.3 percent to $1.7 billion from $1.6 billion a year earlier — stronger than the 5.1 percent expansion analysts forecast. 

Shares of Ralph Lauren company inched up 1.5 percent to $278 in premarket trading.