5 Best Beauty Stocks To Buy Now

4. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 46

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) is a New York-based company that manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers its products under the Estée Lauder, Clinique, M·A·C, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Smashbox, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands, among others. 

On November 2, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) declared a $0.66 per share quarterly dividend, a 10% increase from its prior dividend of $0.60. The dividend is payable on December 15, to shareholders of the company as of November 30. 

Wells Fargo analyst Chris Carey on November 8 raised the price target on The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) to $225 from $215 and maintained an Overweight rating on the shares. Cosmetics imports data from October had the best year-over-year pattern since July, although it was still negative. Duty free imports were positive year-over-year for the first time since April, the analyst noted. The analyst said that the data indicating slight sequential improvement is “intriguing” in the context of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)’s Q3 results, future guidance, and the overall narrative around reopening.

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 46 hedge funds were bullish on The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) at the end of Q2 2022, and Terry Smith’s Fundsmith LLP is the biggest position holder in the company, with approximately 6 million shares worth $1.5 billion. 

Here is what Harding Loevner Global Equity Fund has to say about The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“We sold cosmetic producer Estée Lauder, which we bought last March. At the time, the market reflected a dire outlook for retail demand, especially tourist-related; however, we found its Chinese business attractive and admired its agility across social media and other digital channels. As the stock has appreciated, the resulting valuation now leaves no room for error, such as a potential shift of Chinese consumers’ tastes away from US brands.”