Estée Lauder Companies vs e.l.f. Beauty
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The short version
- Estée Lauder Companies is the larger business, with $15.0B of revenue in fiscal 2026 against $1.6B for e.l.f. Beauty, about 9.2 times as much.
- e.l.f. Beauty grew revenue faster (24.6%, against 5.1%).
- Estée Lauder Companies kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (5.2% operating margin, against 4.5%).
- e.l.f. Beauty turned more of its sales into free cash flow (11.6% FCF margin, against 8.7%).
- Estée Lauder Companies earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (4.9%, against 3.8%).
| Latest fiscal year | EL · FY26 | ELF · FY26 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $39.6B | $6.8B |
| Revenue | $15.0B | $1.6B |
| Free cash flow | $1.3B | $190M |
| Net income | $182M | $26.3M |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 5.1% | 24.6% |
| 5-year growth | −1.5% | 38.8% |
| Share count change | 1.3% | 1.7% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 75.5% | 70.7% |
| Operating margin | 5.2% | 4.5% |
| Net margin | 1.2% | 1.6% |
| FCF margin | 8.7% | 11.6% |
| Return on capital | 4.9% | 3.8% |
| Return on equity | 4.8% | 2.8% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $3.8B | $552M |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.4x | 3.6x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $578M | $50.0M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | — | 114.2x |
| Piotroski F-score | 6 | 4 |
Revenue
FY17
EL $11.8B
ELF $270M
FY18
EL $13.7B
ELF $267M
FY19
EL $14.9B
ELF —
FY20
EL $14.3B
ELF $283M
FY21
EL $16.2B
ELF $318M
FY22
EL $17.7B
ELF $392M
FY23
EL $15.9B
ELF $579M
FY24
EL $15.6B
ELF $1.0B
FY25
EL $14.3B
ELF $1.3B
FY26
EL $15.0B
ELF $1.6B
EL
ELF
Operating margin
FY17
EL 14.4%
ELF 12.3%
FY18
EL 15.0%
ELF 9.8%
FY19
EL 15.6%
ELF —
FY20
EL 4.2%
ELF 10.6%
FY21
EL 16.2%
ELF 3.0%
FY22
EL 17.9%
ELF 7.6%
FY23
EL 9.5%
ELF 11.8%
FY24
EL 6.2%
ELF 14.6%
FY25
EL −5.5%
ELF 12.0%
FY26
EL 5.2%
ELF 4.5%
EL
ELF
Free cash flow
FY17
EL $1.3B
ELF $4.8M
FY18
EL $1.9B
ELF $46.7M
FY19
EL $1.8B
ELF —
FY20
EL $1.7B
ELF $34.9M
FY21
EL $3.0B
ELF $23.0M
FY22
EL $2.0B
ELF $14.7M
FY23
EL $728M
ELF $100M
FY24
EL $1.4B
ELF $62.5M
FY25
EL $670M
ELF $115M
FY26
EL $1.3B
ELF $190M
EL
ELF
Return on capital
FY17
EL 24.8%
ELF 10.6%
FY18
EL 19.7%
ELF 6.8%
FY19
EL —
ELF —
FY20
EL —
ELF —
FY21
EL 38.4%
ELF 2.8%
FY22
EL 36.6%
ELF 7.2%
FY23
EL 13.1%
ELF 18.1%
FY24
EL 5.3%
ELF 23.5%
FY25
EL −6.9%
ELF 14.6%
FY26
EL 4.9%
ELF 3.8%
EL
ELF
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.