ELF
Earnings beat? Yep. Easy ride? Not so much.
e.l.f. Beauty just did the thing companies love to brag about: it beat fourth-quarter estimates on both earnings and revenue. Sales climbed 35% year over year to $449.3 million, and EPS landed at 32 cents, ahead of the 29-cent consensus. That’s the kind of report that usually gets a high-five and a victory lap.
But then came the part investors actually trade on: the outlook. For fiscal 2027, e.l.f. guided adjusted EPS to $3.27 to $3.32 and revenue to $1.835 billion to $1.865 billion — both a bit softer than Wall Street was hoping for. Translation: the runway is still there, but the plane may not be taking off quite as aggressively as the market priced in.
Wall Street did the classic “nice, but…”
After the report, a chorus of analysts trimmed their price targets:
- B of A Securities kept a Buy, but cut its target to $85 from $93
- Piper Sandler held Neutral and lowered its target to $50 from $60
- Morgan Stanley stayed Equal-Weight and trimmed to $59 from $67
- Canaccord Genuity kept Buy and cut to $90 from $100
- Jefferies stayed Buy and lowered to $70 from $85
That’s not exactly a panic parade, but it is Wall Street saying, “Love the story, just maybe at a cheaper price.”
Why you should care
Shares were still up 0.9% Thursday to $51.18, which tells you investors are willing to forgive a lot when growth is still showing up. But the lowered forecasts matter because e.l.f.’s stock has been built on a very specific promise: premium-ish growth at mass-market prices. If that growth starts normalizing, the multiple can get moody fast.
Big picture
e.l.f. is still winning on sales, market share, and brand momentum. The question now is whether the next leg of the story is another sprint — or just a very solid jog.