Estee Lauder (EL)
Consumer Staples · $35.8B market cap · SEC CIK 0001001250
fundamentals score out of 100
Next reports on Nov 2, 2026, with analysts expecting $0.53 in earnings per share.
The case for EL
- Gross margin of 76% absorbs cost shocks.
- Pays a modest 2.1% dividend.
The case against
- Very expensive at 196.9× earnings. Years of growth are already in the price.
- Revenue has shrunk 1.5% a year over five years.
- Return on equity of only 5%.
- Net margin of 1.2% leaves very little room for error.
- Dividend takes 128% of earnings, leaving little cushion.
- Stability is weak (27/100): beta 1.24, a 46% swing over the year.
What the score is made of
Each factor is half a curve over reported figures and half a rank among the other Consumer Staples companies (momentum is judged against fixed thresholds only), and the five are blended by weight. It describes the last filing and the current price. It is not a forecast.
| Valuewhat you pay for the earnings, sales, assets and cash | 17 |
|---|---|
| Growthhow fast revenue and earnings are moving, this year and over five | 33 |
| Profitabilityhow much of the revenue becomes profit, and how much of that is cash | 31 |
| Momentumhow the price has behaved lately | 66 |
| Stabilityhow violently it moves, what it owes and what it pays you | 27 |
- Each factor except momentum is half fixed thresholds, half rank among the 36 Consumer Staples companies.
Key numbers
| Price / earnings | 196.9× |
|---|---|
| Price / book | 7.50× |
| Price / sales | 2.4× |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | +5.1% |
| EPS growth (YoY) | — |
| Gross margin | 76% |
| Operating margin | 5% |
| Net margin | 1% |
| Return on equity | 5% |
| Debt / equity | 1.92× |
| Current ratio | 1.22 |
| Dividend yield | 2.13% |
| Beta | 1.24 |
| 52-week range | $66.22 – $121.64 |
| Position in that range | 61% of the way up |
| 3-month return | +13.6% |
| 1-year return | +9.7% |
Five years of financials, as filed
Pulled from Estee Lauder's XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR. Italic rows are derived from the rows above.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $14.3B | $15.6B | $15.9B | $17.7B | $16.2B |
| Gross profit | $10.6B | $11.2B | $11.3B | $13.4B | $12.4B |
| Operating income | -$785M | $970M | $1.5B | $3.2B | $2.6B |
| Operating cash flow | $1.3B | $2.4B | $1.7B | $3.0B | $3.6B |
| Capital expenditure | $602M | $919M | $1.0B | $1.0B | $637M |
| Total assets | $19.6B | $19.8B | $23.3B | $20.7B | $22.1B |
| Shareholder equity | $4.0B | $4.2B | $5.7B | $5.9B | $6.2B |
| Cash | $3.1B | $2.6B | $3.9B | $3.7B | $4.6B |
| Free cash flow | $670M | $1.4B | $728M | $2.0B | $3.0B |
| Gross margin | 74.0% | 71.7% | 71.3% | 75.7% | 76.4% |
| Operating margin | -5.5% | 6.2% | 9.5% | 17.9% | 16.1% |
| Diluted shares | 360M | 361M | 361M | 365M | 368M |
Share count is essentially flat over 4 years.
What Estee Lauder says it does
– Information about our Executive Officers, will be included in our Proxy Statement for the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "2026 Proxy Statement"). The 2026 Proxy Statement will be filed within 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 and such information is incorporated herein by reference. The Company has an insider trading policy which governs the purchase, sale, and/or other dispositions of our securities (and related derivative securities) by directors, officers and employees and other covered persons and is designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations, and listing standards applicable to the Company. A copy of our Securities Trading Policy is included as Exhibit 19.1 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Item 11. Executive Compensation . The information required by this Item will be included in the 2026 Proxy Statement. The 2026 Proxy Statement will be filed within…