Estée Lauder Companies (The) (EL)
Forward P/E is 32.73x against a peer median of 16.05x, a ratio of 2.04x — about double the peer median — with trailing P/E 217.80x and PEG 1.35. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR): ahead of a slow cluster, but not the high absolute growth that pays for a double multiple, and the PEG rests on expected earnings recovery from a depressed trailing base rather than delivered demand, so the growth exception is not applied. Delivered demand check: the household & personal care group's median growth was 2.3% year over year — demand steady, not accelerating enough to support paying twice the peer multiple.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 18.5x or below (1.15x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth rises above 10% year over year for two quarters with the PEG at or below about 1.5. Move to BUBBLE if the forward P/E stays above 30x while revenue growth falls below 3% year over year.
Estée Lauder sells well-known beauty and skin care brands around the world. Its shares cost about twice what similar companies cost, while its sales grew a modest 6.3%. That price asks for a strong recovery that has not yet arrived, so the shares look overvalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Estée Lauder Companies (The) returned -50.97% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Estée Lauder Companies (The): -86.5% (2022-01-04 to 2025-04-08). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 32.73x against a peer median of 16.05x, a ratio of 2.04x — about double the peer median — with trailing P/E 217.80x and PEG 1.35. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR): ahead of a slow cluster, but not the high absolute growth that pays for a double multiple, and the PEG rests on expected earnings recovery from a depressed trailing base rather than delivered demand, so the growth exception is not applied. Delivered demand check: the household & personal care group's median growth was 2.3% year over year — demand steady, not accelerating enough to support paying twice the peer multiple. The company’s forward P/E is 32.7× against a peer median of 16.1×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the household & personal care group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 2.3% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Estée Lauder grew 6.3%, ahead of that pace but still at a modest absolute rate. Latest-quarter sales growth was +6.3% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estée Lauder Companies (The) (EL) | $108.90 | 32.7× | 217.8× |
| KVUE | $19.42 | 16.1× | 22.9× |
| KMB | $109.13 | 15.5× | 18.6× |
| CHD | $104.78 | 26.7× | 33.6× |
| CLX | $86.22 | 15.1× | 17.9× |
| CL | $91.90 | 23.5× | 36.3× |
| Peer median | 16.1× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $3.6B | 75.5% | $-116M | — | $425M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $3.7B | 76.4% | $89M | 0.24 | $310M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $4.2B | 76.5% | $162M | 0.44 | $1.0B |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $3.5B | 73.4% | $47M | 0.13 | $-436M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $3.4B | 72.0% | $-546M | — | $394M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $3.5B | 75.0% | $159M | 0.44 | $162M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $4.0B | 76.1% | $-590M | -1.64 | $925M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $3.4B | 72.4% | $-156M | -0.43 | $-811M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $3.9B | 71.8% | $-284M | — | $672M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $3.9B | 71.9% | $330M | 0.91 | $359M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $4.3B | 73.0% | $313M | 0.87 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $3.5B | 69.6% | $31M | 0.09 | $-703M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | ESTEE LAUDER COMPANIES INC |
| Chief executive | Stéphane de La Faverie (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Estée_Lauder_Companies) |
| Sector | Consumer Staples — Personal Care Products — sells prestige beauty, skin care, makeup and fragrance products |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $108.90 |
| Market value (market cap) | $39.6B — share price times shares outstanding of 365,400,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding (latest quarter; dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding series is stale for this filer)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $15.0B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $182M |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $1.3B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | -50.97% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -86.5% (2022-01-04 to 2025-04-08) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001001250.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001001250.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/EL/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.