What Makes Estee Lauder Companies (EL) an Investment Bet?

Hardman Johnston Global Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy” investor letter for the third quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The portfolio underperformed in the quarter due to stock selection. The composite returned 5.02%, net of fees, compared to 7.62% for the MSCI AC World Net Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy highlighted stocks such as The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL). The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) is a global manufacturer of skincare, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products.  The one-month return of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) was 13.66%, and its shares gained 45.10% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 26, 2025, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) stock closed at $107.65 per share, with a market capitalization of $38.793 billion.

Hardman Johnston Global Equity Strategy stated the following regarding The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

“During the quarter, we initiated three new positions in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL), STMicroelectronics NV, and Prysmian S.P.A. Estee Lauder Companies Inc. is a leading player in a structurally attractive beauty industry that has been under-managed in recent years. Our investment thesis is supported by solid industry dynamics, with global beauty growing mid-single digits and luxury beauty growing faster. After a period of underperformance, Estée Lauder is taking steps to stabilize and regain market share. The company is successfully implementing “self-help” measures through restructuring and productivity improvements, recovering approximately 600 basis points in gross margin and over 1,000 basis points in operating margin. Combined with mid- to high-single-digit revenue growth and share gains, these improvements should drive strong double-digit earnings growth and support expanding valuation.”

Estee Lauder (EL), Consumer Stocks Jump 10.8%

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 45 hedge fund portfolios held The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) at the end of the third quarter, compared to 48 in the previous quarter. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.’s (NYSE:EL) net sales increased by 3% year-over-year in Q3 2025, fueled by robust double-digit growth in fragrance and modest low single-digit growth in skincare. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) and shared the list of stocks to buy from Michael Burry stock portfolio. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.