CluenexEstée Lauder Companies (The) EL
Estée Lauder Companies (The) scores average on business quality (4.5 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Estée Lauder Companies (The) does
Estee Lauder sells prestige beauty products, spanning skincare, makeup, and fragrance, relying on department stores, travel retail, and direct channels to monetize its brand portfolio.
- What it does best
Estee Lauder commands a 75.5% gross margin, landing in the top decile of its sector at the 99th percentile, powered by pricing power in luxury skincare that cheaper rivals like ELF cannot match.
- The main risk
Sluggish demand in travel retail and Asia continues to pressure earnings, leaving revenue below 2022 levels and forcing a heavy reliance on a turnaround plan.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margins rest at 11.2% with a net margin of 1.2%, reflecting compressed profitability as the business works to regain scale. Sisters to higher gross margins, operating leverage remains constrained.
A brand portfolio spanning high-end cosmetics locks in affluent consumers globally, backed by a gross margin sector percentile of 99 that shields it from low-end price wars.
Revenue grew 5.1% to $15.0B, showing early signs of stabilization after consecutive annual declines from a 2022 peak of $17.7B.
Total debt sits at $7.3B against $3.5B in cash, while interest coverage of 5.0x leaves limited margin for error as free cash flow recovers to $1.3B.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
3 sold $11.8M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on EL
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Estée Lauder Companies (The) scores average on the Cluenex quality check (4.5 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 3 sold $11.8M outside pre-planned sales.
Nov 2, 2026.
See EL today
- Today's verdict on EL, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Estée Lauder Companies (The) (EL)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/el/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.