e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) saw a large increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,920,000 shares, an increase of 9.8% from the October 15th total of 4,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,560,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ELF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of 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. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $184.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of e.l.f. Beauty from $220.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $235.00 target price on shares of e.l.f. Beauty in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, B. Riley cut their price target on e.l.f. Beauty from $175.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.53.

e.l.f. Beauty Price Performance

ELF stock opened at $121.33 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $6.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.58, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $154.16. e.l.f. Beauty has a twelve month low of $98.50 and a twelve month high of $221.83.

e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $301.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $289.43 million. e.l.f. Beauty had a net margin of 8.87% and a return on equity of 19.34%. e.l.f. Beauty’s quarterly revenue was up 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that e.l.f. Beauty will post 2.8 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Tarang Amin sold 23,528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.45, for a total transaction of $3,210,395.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,016 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,465,883.20. The trade was a 18.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of e.l.f. Beauty

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ELF. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of e.l.f. Beauty in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new position in e.l.f. Beauty during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of e.l.f. Beauty in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its stake in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 405.9% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 172 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of e.l.f. Beauty by 456.3% in the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 92.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About e.l.f. Beauty

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cosmetic and skin care products under the e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. Skin, Well People, and Keys Soulcare brand names worldwide. The company offers eye, lip, face, face, paw, and skin care products. It sells its products through national and international retailers and direct-to-consumer channels, which include e-commerce platforms in the United States, and internationally primarily through distributors.