e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) Upgraded by Morgan Stanley to “Overweight” Rating

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Monday, Marketbeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $153.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $139.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $250.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on e.l.f. Beauty from $131.00 to $115.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on e.l.f. Beauty from $240.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. B. Riley lowered their target price on e.l.f. Beauty from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on e.l.f. Beauty in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “hold” rating and a $133.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.76.

e.l.f. Beauty Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of ELF opened at $128.91 on Monday. e.l.f. Beauty has a twelve month low of $98.50 and a twelve month high of $221.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $128.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.03.

e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.34. e.l.f. Beauty had a return on equity of 19.34% and a net margin of 8.87%. The company had revenue of $301.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $289.43 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that e.l.f. Beauty will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other e.l.f. Beauty news, insider Scott Milsten sold 530 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.60, for a total transaction of $72,928.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 68,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,474,172.80. This represents a 0.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Tarang Amin sold 890 shares of e.l.f. Beauty stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.60, for a total transaction of $122,464.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,718,582.40. This trade represents a 0.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,205 shares of company stock worth $297,442. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On e.l.f. Beauty

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ELF. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,305,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $578,480,000 after purchasing an additional 1,501,151 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of e.l.f. Beauty during the third quarter worth about $121,558,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of e.l.f. Beauty in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,321,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in e.l.f. Beauty by 84.4% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,259,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,432,000 after acquiring an additional 576,383 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 223.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 555,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,543,000 after purchasing an additional 383,478 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.44% of the company’s stock.

About e.l.f. Beauty

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of inclusive, accessible, clean, vegan and cruelty free cosmetics and skin care products. The company focuses on the e-commerce, national retailers and international business channels. Its brands include elf, elf skin, WELL People and KEYS soulcare.