What Happened?

Shares of cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) fell 5.9% in the afternoon session after research by Morgan Stanley analyst Dara Mohsenian revealed weak sales trends for the company (ELF). The research revealed that U.S. scanner sales growth "slowed to 5.5% year over year in the last two weeks, including Amazon first party, and were down 1.9% year over year in the last week." The analyst blamed the weakness partly "on the timing of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the LA wildfires."

The shares closed the day at $118.59, down 6.7% from previous close.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

e.l.f. Beauty’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 39 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. 

The previous big move we wrote about was 8 days ago when the stock gained 5.2% on the news that Morgan Stanley analyst Dara Mohsenian upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $139 to $153. The new price target implied a potential 15% upside from where shares traded before the upgrade was announced. The analyst cited several factors for the upgrade, including ELF's "compelling valuation" amid the stock's recent correction and growth in international markets.

e.l.f. Beauty is down 3.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $118.98 per share, it is trading 45.4% below its 52-week high of $218 from June 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of e.l.f. Beauty’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $7,502.

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