e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) Stock Gets Downgrade from Wall Street Zen

e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

ELF has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of e.l.f. Beauty from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $100.00 price target on shares of e.l.f. Beauty in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $100.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $121.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, e.l.f. Beauty currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.50.

e.l.f. Beauty Stock Up 3.0%

NYSE:ELF opened at $119.68 on Friday. e.l.f. Beauty has a 1 year low of $48.82 and a 1 year high of $123.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $106.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.32. The stock has a market cap of $7.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.51, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.61. e.l.f. Beauty had a return on equity of 16.65% and a net margin of 4.47%. The company had revenue of $520.82 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $473.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. e.l.f. Beauty’s revenue was up 51.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that e.l.f. Beauty will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at e.l.f. Beauty

In other news, CEO Tarang Amin sold 47,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.31, for a total transaction of $4,855,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,894,781.76. This trade represents a 25.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Mandy J. Fields sold 16,065 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.52, for a total transaction of $1,679,113.80. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 90,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,500,449.92. This represents a 15.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 91,821 shares of company stock worth $9,624,513. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in e.l.f. Beauty during the 2nd quarter worth about $428,262,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,874,997 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,647,000 after buying an additional 75,842 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of e.l.f. Beauty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $78,202,000. Prime Capital Management Co Ltd bought a new position in shares of e.l.f. Beauty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,736,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 45.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 418,431 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,361,000 after acquiring an additional 131,572 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.44% of the company’s stock.

About e.l.f. Beauty

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc is a beauty company that develops, markets and sells cosmetics and skin-care products. Its portfolio includes e.l.f. Cosmetics and e.l.f. SKIN, as well as brands such as Naturium, Well People and Keys Soulcare. Products include makeup, skin-care treatments and related beauty items.

Founded in 2004, the company sells through its own websites and retail partners, including mass-market and specialty beauty stores. Its products are available in the United States and international markets.

Tarang Amin has served as e.l.f.